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Mutton and Broth, with Roots

A clear mutton broth simmered with root vegetables and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Mutton and Broth, with Roots

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Place the mutton trimmings, onions, thyme, parsley, and celery in a stewpan with ½ cup of water.

  2. Heat gently to draw down the flavors without boiling.

  3. Add 2 quarts of water, skim, and let it simmer slowly to keep clear.

Add the vegetables and finish

  1. In a small soup pot, combine the cutlets, ½ cup of water, turnips, carrots, button onions, and celery.

  2. Cook on the stove until the mixture is dry, then add the strained mutton broth.

  3. Simmer slowly for 30 minutes, skimming as needed.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  3. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 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
Releases rich meaty flavor and gelatin into the liquid, giving the broth body as it simmers.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and depth of flavor as they soften and release their juices.
Carrots
Contribute natural sweetness and a rounded, earthy flavor to the broth.
Thyme
Adds an herbal aroma that perfumes the broth during gentle heating.
Celery
Provides aromatic, savory background flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Keep the broth at a gentle simmer and skim it. Boiling churns fat and fine particles into the liquid, making broth murky and greasy. A slow simmer with regular skimming lets impurities rise to the surface so the broth stays clear.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, thyme, parsley, celery, turnip, carrot. 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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