Name: Broth, Scotch
Ingredients: 1 lb scrag of mutton (frozen); 5 pints water; ½ lb pearl barley; 4 onions or 2 leeks; 1 turnip; 1 carrot; Salt to taste; Pepper to taste; Dried parsley (optional)

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 ↓

Broth, Scotch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Prepare and wash the vegetables, cutting them very small.
Put the chopped vegetables into a basin of boiling water for a few minutes.

Simmer

Wash the barley well and add it to the boiling water with the cut-up mutton.
Simmer for 2 hours, then season with salt and pepper.

Serve

Serve hot, garnished with dried parsley if desired.

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.

Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,002 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Barley + turniptop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together629 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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

Mutton: Gives the broth its main meaty flavour and richness as it simmers.
Pearl barley: Swells as it cooks, thickening the broth and adding body.
Onions: Add sweetness and savoury depth to the broth as they soften.
Turnip: Softens during simmering, adding mild sweetness and body to the broth.
Carrot: Softens during simmering, adding sweetness and colour to the broth.

The step that matters

Wash the barley well. Rinsing removes surface starch and dust, so the broth stays clearer and the barley cooks evenly rather than clumping.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, barley, onion, turnip, carrot, pepper):

Celeryfits about as well
Parsleythe original
Thymefits about as well
Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, barley, onion, turnip, carrot, 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.