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Soup

Mutton Broth

A hearty broth made with mutton, vegetables, and barley or tapioca, simmered until tender.

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

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Mutton Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Trim excess fat from the mutton and cut it into small pieces.

  2. Place the mutton in a saucepan and cover with cold water.

  3. Add a little salt and bring to a boil, skimming off any scum.

Make the broth

  1. Prepare the vegetables by cutting them into small dice and add them to the broth.

  2. Cook gently until the meat is tender.

  3. Remove the bones from the meat and cut it into dice.

  4. Add the diced meat and barley or tapioca to the broth.

  5. Season with salt and pepper, and continue to cook for another 30 to 40 minutes.

  6. Serve hot.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + barleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 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
Provides meat flavour and body as its collagen softens during gentle simmering.
Barley or crushed tapioca
Thickens the broth as its starch swells during cooking.
Carrots
Add sweetness and colour to the broth as they soften.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and soft texture to the broth as they cook.
Onion
Adds savoury depth to the broth as it softens and releases its flavour.

The step that matters

Skimming off any scum after the first boil. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise as the broth heats. Removing it keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting, and it is easiest to do before the liquid is simmering vigorously.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, carrot, turnip, celery, pepper, barley. 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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