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Scotch Broth

A hearty mutton broth with barley and diced vegetables, simmered slowly and seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Scotch Broth

Why it works: Leek and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Scotch Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the mutton into small pieces.

  2. Place the mutton in a stewpan with the cold water and salt.

  3. Cook gently for about 2 hours.

  4. Wash the barley.

  5. Cut the vegetables into dice.

Make the broth

  1. Add the vegetables and barley to the broth.

  2. Cook for another hour.

  3. Strain the broth.

  4. Return it to the stewpan.

  5. Cut the meat into small pieces.

  6. Remove any bone fragments from the vegetables and barley.

  7. Add them to the broth.

  8. Heat until hot.

  9. Season to taste.

  10. Serve.

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. Leek + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Leek + barleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together142 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 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 rich meaty flavour as it simmers slowly in the water.
Scotch barley
Thickens the broth slightly as its starch releases during long simmering.
Leek
Adds a mild onion-like sweetness and aroma to the broth.
Turnip
Adds subtle sweetness and body as it softens in the broth.

The step that matters

Cook gently for about 2 hours. A gentle simmer lets the mutton release its flavour and become tender without toughening. Boiling hard makes the meat stringy and can cloud the broth.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, leek, carrot, turnip, celery, parsley, 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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