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Mutton Broth

A clear broth made from mutton, water, rice, and salt, served with 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

  1. Thoroughly clean the mutton and cut it into small pieces.

  2. Place the mutton in a pot with cold water and bring it to a boil gradually.

Simmer and strain

  1. Add salt and strain the broth, then add ½ cup more water to compensate for evaporation.

  2. Boil steadily for 3 hours.

  3. Wash the rice and add it to the broth about 1 hour before it's done.

Cool and serve

  1. Pour the broth into a basin and let it cool; remove the fat once cooled.

  2. Serve with finely 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. 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

Scrag of mutton
Provides the meat and bones that give the broth its body and rich flavour.
Rice
Thickens the broth slightly as its starch softens during cooking.
Water
Extracts flavour and gelatin from the mutton as it simmers slowly.

The step that matters

Bring the mutton to a boil gradually. Starting in cold water and heating slowly lets the meat release its juices and fat gradually, producing a clearer broth. Rapid boiling emulsifies fat into the liquid and makes it cloudy.

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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