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Scotch Barley Broth

A hearty broth made with Scotch barley, beef, onions, celery, and turnip, simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Barley and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 629 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Scotch Barley Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and simmer

  1. Wash the Scotch barley in cold water.

  2. In a soup pot, combine the barley and beef pieces, covering with cold water.

  3. Bring to a boil, skim the surface clean, and add the onions.

  4. Reduce heat and simmer gently for 2 hours.

Add vegetables and finish

  1. Skim off all the fat, then add the celery and turnip.

  2. Season with salt and boil for an additional 1.5 hours.

  3. Carefully remove the meat and keep warm.

  4. Skim the broth well before serving.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Barley + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together571 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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 as its starch releases during long simmering, and gives the soup body and chew.
Beef shin or leg
Releases gelatin and savory flavor into the broth during the long, gentle simmer.
Onions
Add sweetness and aromatic depth to the broth as they cook.
Celery
Adds aromatic, savory flavor to the broth as it softens.
Turnip
Softens into the broth, adding mild sweetness and body.

The step that matters

Skimming the surface and fat. Foam and fat rise to the surface while the broth simmers. Removing them early keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting, and skimming again before serving removes fat that has risen during cooking.

Swap the onion

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

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

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