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Scotch Broth

A hearty mutton broth with barley, vegetables, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Scotch Broth

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

Prepare the meat

  1. Trim the neck of mutton as for cutlets and set aside seven cutlets on a dish.

  2. Place the remaining neck into a saucepan with 2 quarts of cold water.

Make the broth

  1. Add 2 onions, one studded with 2 cloves.

  2. When the water is boiling, skim off any foam.

  3. Add equal parts diced carrots, turnips, leeks, and onions, about ½ pint total.

  4. Simmer for 3 hours.

  5. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Cook the barley and cutlets

  1. Blanch the Scotch barley and finish cooking it in water with a little butter and salt.

  2. In another pan, cook the cutlets slowly in some of the broth.

Serve

  1. Drain the barley and place it in a tureen with the cutlets.

  2. Remove the neck of mutton to a dish and pour the broth into the tureen.

  3. Add 2 teaspoons of coarsely chopped parsley.

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. Leek + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Leek + barleytop 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

Neck of mutton
Gives the broth its body and rich meaty flavour as the meat, bone and fat cook down.
Scotch barley
Thickens the broth slightly and adds a chewy, hearty texture.
Onions
Add savoury depth and mild sweetness as they soften in the broth.
Carrots
Contribute natural sweetness and colour to the broth.
Turnips
Add an earthy, slightly sweet flavour to the broth.

The step that matters

Skim off any foam once the water boils. Foam carries proteins and impurities released from the meat. Removing it early keeps the broth clear and stops off flavours from building up during the long simmer.

Swap the onion

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

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

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

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