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Scotch Broth

A hearty mutton soup with barley, root vegetables, and parsley.

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 broth

  1. Trim the neck of mutton for cutlets.

  2. Remove eight chops and set aside.

  3. Place the remaining neck in a three-quart saucepan with 2 quarts of cold water, a little pepper, salt, and 1 onion studded with 2 cloves. Bring to a boil and skim.

  4. Add ½ cup of diced carrots, turnips, leeks, and onions.

  5. Simmer for 3 hours.

Cook the barley and chops

  1. Blanch ½ cup of Scotch barley. Cook it in water with a little butter and salt.

  2. In another pan, cook the reserved chops in some of the broth until done.

Assemble and serve

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

  2. Remove the neck of mutton.

  3. Pour the broth over it. Add the chopped parsley.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Leek + barleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together142 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Leek + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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 rich meaty flavour as it simmers for hours.
Scotch barley
Thickens the broth and adds a chewy, starchy body.
Leeks
Add a mild onion sweetness that rounds out the broth.
Turnips
Contribute earthy sweetness and soften into the broth during simmering.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and colour to the broth.

The step that matters

Skim the broth after it comes to a boil. Foam and fat rising at the start would cloud the broth and taste greasy, so removing them early keeps it clear and clean-flavoured over the long simmer.

Swap the onion

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

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

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