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Soup

Scotch Broth

A hearty soup made with beef, mutton, barley, carrots, turnips, onions, and parsley.

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

  1. Cut the meat into small pieces and remove all the fat.

Simmer

  1. Put the meat into a pan with the water and pearl barley, and simmer for 1 hour.

  2. Add the vegetables, cut into dice, and simmer for 1½ hours longer.

Season and serve

  1. Season with salt and pepper, and sprinkle the 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. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 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

Shin of beef
Provides rich meat flavour and body as it simmers into the broth.
Neck of mutton
Adds savoury depth and gelatin that gives the broth a fuller body.
Pearl barley
Swells as it cooks, thickening the broth and adding a soft, chewy texture.
Carrots
Contribute natural sweetness and a firm texture that holds up to long simmering.
Turnips
Add a mild, slightly peppery sweetness and soften as the broth cooks.

The step that matters

Removing the fat from the meat. Fat that is left in the pan renders into the liquid and can make the broth greasy and heavy on the palate. Trimming it before simmering keeps the finished broth clean-tasting.

Swap the onion

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

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

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