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Scotch Broth

A hearty soup made with mutton, barley, cabbage, carrots, and leek, simmered slowly and garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Scotch Broth

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Scotch Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Trim off excess fat from the mutton.

  2. Place the meat in a saucepan with 2 cups of water for every pound of meat.

  3. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 oz of pearl barley for every quart of water.

Simmer the broth

  1. Bring to a boil, skimming off any scum that rises.

  2. Add the chopped cabbage, diced carrots, and chopped leek.

  3. Simmer for at least 4 hours, skimming as needed.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove any rough bits of bone before serving.

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Cabbage + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together214 recipes

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

  5. Leek + parsleytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together759 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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 main meaty flavor and body as it simmers.
Pearl barley
Thickens the broth and adds a soft, chewy texture as it cooks.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and a mild sweetness to the broth as it softens.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and color to the broth.
Leek
Adds a mild onion-like aroma and flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum while bringing to a boil and simmering. Scum and fat that rise early can make the broth cloudy and greasy. Removing them as they form keeps the liquid clearer and cleaner-tasting over the long simmer.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Turnipfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, barley, carrot, leek, parsley. 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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