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Scotch Broth

A hearty soup of barley, seasonal vegetables, and butter or oil, simmered in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Scotch Broth

Why it works: Barley and cabbage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Scotch Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the barley

  1. Wash and soak the barley in water for three hours.

  2. Combine the soaked barley and 1 quart of water in a saucepan.

  3. Bring to a boil.

Simmer the broth

  1. Add the chopped vegetables, butter or oil, and salt.

  2. Boil for two hours.

  3. Add boiling water as needed to maintain consistency.

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. Barley + cabbagetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together124 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Barley + buttertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Cabbage + buttertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,397 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Barley
Its starch thickens the broth and gives it a hearty body as it cooks.
Seasonal vegetables
They add sweetness, body and flavour to the broth as they soften during cooking.
Butter or oil
Adds fat, which carries flavour and gives the broth a richer mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Maintaining the consistency with boiling water. Barley keeps absorbing liquid and thickening over a two-hour simmer. Adding boiling water as needed keeps the broth from becoming too thick or scorching, and boiling water keeps the simmer going without cooling the pot.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (barley, butter):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against barley, butter. 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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