Name: Scotch Broth
Ingredients: 1 lb mutton, trimmed and diced; ½ teaspoon salt; 2 carrots, diced; 1 leek, sliced; Chopped parsley, to taste; 3 pints water; 1 oz pearl barley; 1 small cabbage, shredded; 1 turnip, diced

Why it works: Leek and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Scotch Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

In a stewpan, combine the diced mutton with 3 pints of cold water and the salt.
Add the pearl barley and bring to a boil, skimming off any foam.

Simmer the vegetables

Once boiling, add the cabbage, carrots, and leek.
Reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour.
Add the diced turnip and continue to simmer for an additional 30 minutes.
Remove any pieces of bone 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.

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.

Leek + turniptop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,046 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Leek + barleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together142 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,002 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Cabbage + turniptop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together897 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

Mutton: Gives the broth its meaty flavour and richness as it simmers.
Pearl barley: Thickens the broth and adds a chewy, starchy body.
Carrots: Add sweetness and colour to the broth as they soften.
Turnip: Adds a mildly sweet, earthy flavour and soft texture.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, carrot, leek, parsley, barley, turnip):

Parsnipfits better
Shallotfits better
Beetrootfits better
Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, carrot, leek, parsley, barley, 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.