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Scotch Mutton Broth

A hearty broth made with mutton neck, barley, carrots, turnips, onions, and parsley.

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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

  1. Soak the neck of mutton in water for 1 hour.

  2. Cut off the scrag end and place it in a stewpan with 2 quarts of water.

  3. Bring to a boil, skim well, and then simmer for 1.5 hours.

  4. Slice the best end of the mutton into chops, removing skin and fat.

Make the broth

  1. Add the chops to the broth and skim every 15 minutes.

  2. Add sliced carrots, turnips, onions, soaked Scotch barley, chopped parsley, and salt to taste.

  3. Serve the broth in a tureen.

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.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 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 neck
Gives the broth its rich, savory meat flavor and body as it simmers.
Scotch barley
Swells as it cooks, thickening the broth and adding a chewy texture.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and color to the broth as they soften.
Turnips
Contribute a mild, slightly peppery sweetness and soften into the broth.
Onions
Add aromatic depth and sweetness to the broth as they cook.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil, skim well, then simmer. Skimming the foam that rises at the start removes impurities that would cloud the broth and taste muddy. Keeping the simmer gentle, rather than a hard boil, lets the meat release flavor slowly and keeps the broth clear.

Swap the onion

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

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

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