Why it works: Barley and celery work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 571 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓
Mutton Tea
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Trim all the fat from the mutton and cut it into chops.
Make the soup
In a pot, add the mutton, barley, and water.
Simmer gently for 2 hours.
Strain the mixture and remove all the fat once cooled.
Season and serve
Season with coarse sea salt and add celery for flavor if desired.
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.
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Barley + celerytop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together571 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
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Mutton + barleytop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together510 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).
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Mutton + celerytop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together928 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Scrag end neck of mutton
- Provides the main meat and rich flavour as it simmers into the broth.
- Pearl barley
- Releases starch as it cooks, thickening the broth and giving it body.
- Water
- Forms the broth that carries flavour from the meat and barley.
The step that matters
Remove the fat after cooling. Fat rises and sets on top of a cooled broth, so it can be lifted off cleanly. Skimming while the soup is hot leaves greasy droplets that make the soup heavy.
Swap the celery
The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, barley):
- Celerythe original
- Thymefits about as well
- Pepperfits less well
- Cuminfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, 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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