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Mutton Broth

A clear broth made from mutton neck, pearl barley or rice, and seasoned with salt, butter, flour, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Mutton Broth

Why it works: Barley and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 630 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mutton Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Wash the mutton well until clean.

  2. Place the mutton in a large saucepan with 3 pints of cold water and bring to a boil.

  3. Wash the pearl barley or rice in cold water.

  4. Once boiling, add the pearl barley or rice and ½ teaspoon of salt to help the scum rise.

  5. Reduce heat and let it simmer gently for 2.5 hours, skimming occasionally.

Make the sauce

  1. For the sauce, melt ½ ounce of butter in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in ½ ounce of flour until smooth.

  3. Add ½ cup of broth from the mutton to the butter and flour mixture, stirring until it boils and thickens.

  4. Chop the parsley finely and add it to the sauce, keeping it warm until needed.

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. Barley + parsleytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together630 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Barley + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together582 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mutton + barleytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together510 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Provides the meat flavour and gelatin that give the broth its body.
Pearl barley or rice
Adds body and thickens the broth as its starch softens during simmering.
Butter
Carries the flour and adds richness to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the butter into a smooth roux that gives the sauce its body.

The step that matters

Skimming during the simmer. Scum rises from the meat as it heats and, if left in the broth, makes it cloudy and gives it an off flavour. Regular skimming keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, barley, butter, flour):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Turmericfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, barley, butter, flour. 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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