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Mutton Broth

A clear broth made by simmering mutton neck, water, grains, vegetables, herbs, peppercorns, and salt for about three hours.

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

Mutton Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove excess fat from the mutton and cut it into small pieces, including the bones.

  2. Place the meat and bones in a clean pot and add water.

Simmer

  1. Bring to a gentle boil, skimming off any scum that rises to the surface.

  2. Add rice or barley, leek, celery, turnip, parsley, peppercorns, and salt.

  3. Cook gently for about three hours, 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.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  3. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Leek + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 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
Provides the meat and bones that release flavour and body into the broth as it simmers.
Rice or barley
Thickens the broth slightly as its starch releases during the long simmer.
Leek
Adds a mild, sweet onion-like aroma to the broth.
Turnip
Adds a gentle sweetness and body to the broth as it softens.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise during the first boil. Skimming it keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting instead of cloudy or greasy.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Turmericfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, rice, leek, celery, turnip. 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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