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Broth

A clear broth made from a sheep's head and trotters with barley, peas, turnip, carrot, and seasonings.

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

Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the head and trotters in salt water overnight.

  2. Scrape them again the next morning and pour boiling water over them, then let the head and trotters soak for 1 hour.

Cook

  1. In a pot, combine the head, trotters, cold water, barley, peas, turnip, carrot, and any other vegetables.

  2. Boil for 3 to 4 hours, seasoning with pepper and salt.

Serve

  1. Serve the broth in a tureen, with the head and trotters on a platter, garnished with pieces of turnip and carrot.

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.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Barley + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Barley
Thickens the broth as its starch releases during long simmering, giving body.
Peas
Break down during the long boil, adding body and earthy sweetness to the broth.
Sheep's head and trotters
Gelatin-rich bones and connective tissue melt into the broth, giving it richness and a silky texture.

The step that matters

Boil for 3 to 4 hours. A gentle, steady simmer slowly breaks down collagen from the head and trotters into gelatin, which gives the broth body. A hard boil can make the liquid cloudy and the meat tough.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Lentilsfits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Chickpeafits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against barley, turnip, carrot, leek, 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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