Name: Plain Family Mutton Broth
Ingredients: 3 pounds scrag end of neck of mutton; 2 fried onions; 2 turnips; 3 teaspoons salt; 1 teaspoon black pepper; 3 quarts water; 3 tablespoons barley or oatmeal; 1 tablespoon chopped parsley; 1 tablespoon chopped thyme

Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Plain Family Mutton Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Cut the mutton into pieces.
In a stewpan, combine mutton, fried onions, turnips, salt, and pepper.

Simmer and finish

Cover with water and simmer for 2 hours, skimming occasionally.
Strain the broth and stir in barley or oatmeal, parsley, and thyme.
Return the mutton to the broth and stew for 1 hour longer.
Serve the broth with the mutton pieces.

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.

Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,057 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Turnip + barleytop 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).
Turnip + thymetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,352 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

Scrag end of neck of mutton: Gives the broth its meaty flavour and rich body as it simmers.
Barley or oatmeal: Starch thickens the broth slightly as it cooks and softens.
Turnips: Contribute mild sweetness and aroma to the broth during long simmering.
Fried onions: Add savoury, browned depth and sweetness to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming during the simmer. Foam and fat rise to the surface as the broth simmers. Skimming them off keeps the broth clear and stops it tasting greasy or cloudy.

Swap the onion

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

Leekfits better
Carrotfits better
Parsnipfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, turnip, pepper, barley, parsley, thyme. 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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Plain Family Mutton Broth