Skip to main content
Main

Scotch Broth

A hearty soup made with beef, leeks, carrot, and water, simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Scotch Broth

Why it works: Leek and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,310 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Scotch Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the white part of the leeks into small pieces and soak all vegetables (except the carrot) in cold water until needed. Drain before use.

  2. Scrape the carrot to a pulp.

Cook

  1. Bring water to a boil, add the beef and all vegetables.

  2. Boil for 3 minutes, then reduce heat and simmer gently for about 4 hours until the meat is tender.

  3. After about 2 hours, remove the meat and set aside, then return it to heat before serving.

Serve

  1. Serve the broth in a tureen and the meat on a separate dish.

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 + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,606 recipes

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

  3. Beef + leektop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together659 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Long, gentle simmering breaks down connective tissue, making the meat tender and enriching the broth.
Leeks
Adds a mild, onion-like aroma and savory flavor to the broth.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and golden color to the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer gently after the initial boil. After the 3-minute boil, a gentle simmer keeps the meat tender and the broth clear. A hard, sustained boil toughens muscle fibers and makes the broth cloudy.

Swap the leek

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Turnipfits about as well
  4. Leekthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot. 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.

You might also like

Roast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCarrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipes