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Mutton Broth

A clear broth made from mutton knuckle, simmered with water, salt, rice, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Mutton Broth

Why it works: Rice and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,762 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mutton Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

  1. Wipe the mutton with a damp cloth.

  2. Cut the mutton into small pieces, removing all the fat.

  3. Place the meat and bone in an enamelled pan. Add a little salt and cover with water.

Make the broth

  1. Bring the contents to a slow boil, skimming off any scum that rises.

  2. Allow to simmer for four hours. Skim the broth.

  3. Strain the broth through a fine wire sieve.

  4. When cold, remove all fat from the top.

Finish and serve

  1. Return the broth to a clean saucepan. Add rice and cook for twenty minutes until the rice is soft.

  2. Add finely chopped parsley. Serve.

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. Rice + parsleytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,762 recipes

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

  2. Mutton + ricetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Mutton + parsleytop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,915 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Knuckle of mutton
Gives the broth its main meaty flavour, and the bone adds body as it simmers.
Well-washed rice
Thickens the broth slightly as it cooks and softens the grains.

The step that matters

Skimming the broth. Scum that rises during the first boil can cloud the broth and taste bitter, so it should be removed as it forms. Removing fat once the broth is cold lets it set on the surface, where it lifts off cleanly.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, rice):

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Cuminfits better
  3. Pepperfits better
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, rice. 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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