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Scotch Broth

A mutton soup with turnips, celery, onion, barley, butter, flour, salt, pepper, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Scotch Broth

Why it works: Turnip and barley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 629 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Scotch Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the meat from the bones and remove all fat.

  2. Cut the meat into small pieces and place in a soup kettle with the turnips, celery, onion, and ½ cup of water.

Simmer the broth

  1. Simmer gently for 2 hours.

  2. Add the barley and bones with 1 pint of water, and simmer for the same time.

  3. Strain the mixture into the soup kettle.

Finish

  1. Cook the butter and flour together until smooth, then stir into the broth.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, and chopped parsley.

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 + barleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + barleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together571 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Gives the broth its meaty flavor and, through long simmering, gelatin that adds body.
Barley
Its starch releases during simmering, thickening the broth and adding a soft, chewy texture.
Butter and flour
Cooked together as a roux, they thicken the broth smoothly and add richness.
Onion
Softens and sweetens during simmering, building the base aroma of the broth.

The step that matters

Cooking the butter and flour until smooth. Flour must be cooked in the fat before it meets the hot broth. Stirring it into a smooth paste first prevents lumps, and cooking it removes the raw, pasty taste of uncooked flour.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, turnip, celery, barley, butter, flour, pepper. 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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