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Scotch-barley-broth

A hearty broth made with scotch barley, beef leg, onions, celery, turnip, carrot, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Scotch-barley-broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the Scotch barley in cold water.

  2. Place the barley, leg of beef, onions, and enough water to cover everything in a stewpan.

Simmer and serve

  1. Boil gently for 1.5 hours.

  2. Remove the fat, then add celery, turnip, and carrot pieces.

  3. Season with salt and boil for another hour or more.

  4. Serve with pepper or other condiments.

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. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Barley + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Scotch barley
Thickens the broth and adds a chewy texture as its starch softens during simmering.
Leg of beef
Releases flavour and gelatin into the water, giving the broth body and savouriness.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aroma to the broth as they soften and release their flavour.
Celery
Adds aromatic flavour to the broth during the long simmer.

The step that matters

Remove the fat, then add celery, turnip, and carrot pieces.. Skimming fat before adding vegetables keeps the broth clean-tasting and prevents a greasy surface. Adding the vegetables later keeps them from overcooking into mush during the long simmer.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (barley, beef, celery, turnip, carrot, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against barley, beef, celery, 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.

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