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Scotch Barley Broth

A hearty broth made with Scotch barley, beef, onions, celery, turnip, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Barley and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 629 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Scotch Barley Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the Scotch barley in cold water.

  2. Cut the beef into four pieces.

  3. Place the barley in a soup pot with the beef and cover with cold water.

Simmer the broth

  1. Bring to a boil and skim off any foam.

  2. Add the onions.

  3. Reduce heat and simmer gently for 2 hours, then skim off the fat.

  4. Add the celery and turnip and season with salt.

  5. Boil for an additional 1.5 hours.

Serve

  1. Remove the meat carefully and keep warm.

  2. Skim the broth 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.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Barley + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together571 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Scotch barley
Thickens the broth and adds chewy texture as its starch softens during long simmering.
Beef shin or leg
Releases gelatin and flavor into the broth, giving body during long, gentle cooking.
Onions
Add sweetness and aromatic depth to the broth as they cook down.
Celery
Contributes savory, aromatic flavor to the broth.
Turnip
Adds mild sweetness and earthy flavor to the broth as it softens.

The step that matters

Skim the foam and fat. Foam and fat rise to the surface as the broth heats and simmers. Removing them keeps the broth clear and prevents a greasy, muddy taste.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against barley, beef, celery, 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.

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