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Scotch Broth

A hearty mutton soup with barley, vegetables, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Scotch Broth

Why it works: Parsley and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Scotch Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Cut the meat from the bones.

  2. Remove all fat from the meat.

  3. Cut the meat into small pieces.

Simmer the soup

  1. Place the meat in a soup pot with finely chopped vegetables.

  2. Add barley to the pot.

  3. Cover the pot with water.

  4. Simmer gently for 2 hours.

  5. Place the bones in 1 pint of water.

  6. Simmer the bones for 2 hours.

  7. Strain the bone water into the soup.

Finish and serve

  1. Cook the butter and flour together until smooth.

  2. Stir the butter‑flour mixture into the soup.

  3. Add parsley, pepper, and salt to the soup.

  4. Serve the broth.

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. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  4. Barley + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 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 flavour the broth as they simmer.
Barley
Thickens the broth and adds body as it cooks in the liquid.
Butter and flour
Cooked together into a roux, they thicken the broth smoothly.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and colour to the broth as it cooks.

The step that matters

Cooking the butter and flour until smooth. If the flour is stirred in raw or added in lumps, it will not disperse evenly and can leave clumps. Cooking the butter and flour together first coats the starch in fat so it blends into the hot liquid without lumping.

Swap the onion

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

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

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