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Mutton Broth

A clear broth made from boiled mutton, pearl barley, carrots, turnip, onions, leeks, parsley, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Mutton Broth

Why it works: Turnip and leek 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 ↓

Mutton Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liquor

  1. Remove the fat from the pot liquor when it is cold.

Make the broth

  1. Reboil the liquor and add the cleansed and sliced vegetables.

  2. Wash and scald the barley, then boil for at least two hours.

  3. Add leftover vegetables if available.

  4. Add parsley a few minutes before serving and season delicately.

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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Barley + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together142 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Pepper + parsleytop 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

Pearl barley
Thickens the broth as its starch releases during long simmering, giving body.
Pot liquor from boiled mutton
Forms the broth base and carries the meaty flavour of the dish.
Leeks
Add mild onion-like sweetness and aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Remove the fat from the pot liquor when it is cold. Fat solidifies on cold liquor and is easy to lift off. Leaving it in makes the broth greasy and heavy on the palate, while skimming it cold keeps the broth clean and clear.

Swap the onion

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

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

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