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Soup

Scotch Broth

A hearty soup of beef, barley, carrots, onions, cabbage, and turnip simmered in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Scotch Broth

Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Scotch Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine barley and 2 quarts of water in a large pot.

  2. Bring to a boil and cook for 1 hour.

  3. Add the beef and chopped vegetables to the pot.

  4. Continue boiling for 2 hours.

  5. Do not add any more water during the last hour of cooking.

Serve

  1. Season with salt to taste before serving.

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. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Cabbage + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Barley + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides rich meaty flavor and gelatin that gives the broth body as it simmers.
Pot barley
Its starch thickens the broth and its chewy texture adds substance to the soup.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth as it softens into the broth.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and color while holding its shape during long simmering.
Turnip
Adds mild sweetness and a earthy note that balances the rich beef.

The step that matters

Do not add more water during the last hour. Water added late dilutes the broth and slows its return to a boil, weakening the flavor that has concentrated during the long simmer. Keeping the volume steady lets the broth reduce slightly and develop body.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, barley, carrot, onion, turnip):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, barley, carrot, onion, 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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