Why it works: Barley and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 630 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Mutton Broth
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the broth
Wash the mutton well until it is clean.
Put the meat in a large saucepan with 3 pints of cold water and bring to a boil.
Wash the pearl barley or rice in cold water.
When the water boils, add the barley or rice.
Add ¼ teaspoon of salt to help the scum rise.
Reduce heat and let it simmer gently for 2.5 hours, skimming occasionally.
Make the parsley sauce
If the meat is needed immediately, prepare the sauce.
Chop the parsley finely.
Melt the butter in a saucepan over heat.
Stir the flour smoothly into the butter with a wooden spoon.
Take ½ cup of broth from the mutton and pour it into the butter and flour.
Stir until it boils and thickens.
Add the chopped parsley to the sauce.
Keep the sauce warm.
Serve
Once the mutton is cooked, remove it.
Place it on a hot dish.
Pour the parsley sauce over the mutton.
Cool and reheat the broth
Pour the broth into a basin to cool.
Once cool, remove all the fat.
Reheat.
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.
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Barley + parsleytop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together630 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Barley + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together582 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mutton + barleytop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together510 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
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 main meaty flavour and body as it simmers.
- Pearl barley or rice
- Releases starch as it cooks, adding body and slight thickness to the broth.
- Butter
- Provides fat and richness, and forms the base of the sauce with the flour.
- Flour
- Thickens the parsley sauce as its starch swells in the hot butter and liquid.
- Parsley
- Adds fresh, green aroma and a clean herbal note to the sauce.
The step that matters
Stirring the flour smoothly into the butter. Flour must be fully mixed into the melted butter so its starch disperses evenly. If it clumps, the broth goes in unevenly and the sauce turns lumpy instead of smooth and thick.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, barley, butter, flour):
- Capersfits better
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Turmericfits about as well
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, barley, butter, flour. 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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