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Mutton Broth

A clear broth made from mutton, barley, turnip, onion, leeks, carrot, parsley, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Mutton Broth

Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Mutton Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the pearl barley in cold water for 30 minutes.

  2. Cut the mutton into joints and wash them in cold water.

  3. Place the mutton in a stewpan with 3 quarts of cold water and bring to a boil.

  4. Skim the surface, add salt, skim again, and reduce heat to simmer for 1.5 hours, skimming occasionally.

  5. Wash, peel, and dice the turnip and onion.

  6. Wash, scrape, and dice the carrot.

  7. Trim and wash the leeks, then dice them.

Make the broth

  1. Strain the broth into a basin and cut the mutton into small pieces.

  2. Return the broth to the saucepan, add the meat, vegetables, soaked barley, and pepper and salt to taste.

  3. Simmer gently for about 30 minutes until the vegetables are tender.

  4. Chop the parsley finely and add it just before serving.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Barley + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together142 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Gives the broth its rich meaty flavour and body as it simmers.
Pearl barley
Thickens the broth and adds a soft, chewy texture as it cooks.
Turnip
Adds subtle sweetness and body to the vegetables in the broth.
Leeks
Contribute a mild onion-like aroma and sweetness to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the surface after boiling. Skimming removes foam and coagulated proteins that would otherwise cloud the broth and give it an unclean taste. Doing it before adding salt and again during the simmer keeps the broth clear and clean-flavoured.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, barley, turnip, leek, carrot, parsley, pepper):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, barley, turnip, leek, carrot, parsley, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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