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Barley Broth

A hearty broth made with barley, mutton, vegetables, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Barley Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Heat the dripping in a large pot.

  2. Add the flour and stir well without browning.

  3. Add the water and mutton bone to the pot.

  4. Wash the barley and add it to the pot.

  5. Remove any scum that forms.

  6. Allow to boil for one hour.

Add the vegetables

  1. Scrape and peel the carrot and turnip, wash them well, and cut into very small square pieces.

  2. Chop the onion small and add it along with the carrot and turnip to the broth.

  3. Stick the cloves into a piece of carrot and add to the pot.

  4. Boil for one hour longer.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the cloves.

  2. Skim off any fat.

  3. Take out the mutton.

  4. Pour the broth into a tureen.

  5. 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.

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. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 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

Barley
Thickens the broth as its starch softens during the long simmer, giving body and a hearty texture.
Flour
Cooked briefly in the fat, it forms a roux that thickens the broth.
Mutton bone
Releases gelatin and savory flavor into the water during the long boil.
Dripping
Fat that carries flavor and starts the roux, adding richness to the broth.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and color as it softens in the broth.
Turnip
Adds mild sweetness and soft texture as it cooks in the broth.

The step that matters

Add the flour without browning. Stirring the flour into the hot fat cooks out its raw taste and lets it thicken the liquid smoothly once water is added. If it browns, the broth takes on a bitter, toasted flavor and a different color.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, flour, barley, carrot, turnip, pepper, clove):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, flour, barley, carrot, turnip, pepper, clove. 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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