Skip to main content
Main

Mutton Broth

A clear broth made by simmering mutton, barley, and vegetables for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Mutton Broth

Why it works: Turnip and leek 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 ↓

Mutton Broth

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Soak the pearl barley in cold water for 30 minutes.

  2. Cut the mutton into joints.

  3. Wash the mutton pieces and place them in a stewpan with 3 quarts of cold water.

  4. Bring to a boil, skim off the scum, add salt, skim again, and simmer gently for 1.5 hours, skimming occasionally.

  5. Wash, peel, and dice the turnip and onion.

  6. Wash and scrape the carrot.

  7. Wash the leeks and cut off the green tops.

  8. Dice all the vegetables.

  9. Strain the broth into a basin, cut the mutton into small pieces, and return the broth to the saucepan.

  10. Add the meat, vegetables, soaked barley, and pepper and salt to taste.

  11. Simmer gently for about 30 minutes until the vegetables are tender.

  12. Chop the parsley finely.

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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Barley + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together142 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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 rich flavour and body as it simmers slowly in water.
Pearl barley
Adds body and thickens the broth as its starch releases during simmering.
Turnip
Contributes mild sweetness and substance to the finished broth.
Onion
Adds savoury depth and aroma to the broth as it cooks.
Leeks
Add a gentle onion-like flavour and tender body to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum after the boil. Skimming removes coagulated proteins and fat that would otherwise cloud the broth and taste greasy, so it should be done as the liquid first boils and again during the simmer.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

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

More mutton broth recipes

Scotch 33with Chops 5Jelly 3with Roots 3 See all 391 →

You might also like

Carrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesHaricot MuttonHaricot Mutton59 recipesMutton SoupMutton Soup56 recipesTurnip SoupTurnip Soup43 recipes