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Mutton Broth

A clear broth made from mutton neck, barley, carrot, onion, celery, parsley, salt, pepper, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Mutton Broth

Why it works: Carrot and parsley 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 ↓

Mutton Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim the mutton into neat pieces and remove all the fat.

  2. Cut the carrot and onion into fine strips.

  3. Blanch the pearl barley.

Simmer

  1. Simmer the meat and vegetables in the water for about 2 hours.

  2. Season lightly with salt and pepper.

  3. Add the pearl barley about 1 hour before serving.

Serve

  1. Place the broth in a soup tureen with some neatly cut pieces of the cooked meat.

  2. Pour the broth over the meat and serve hot.

  3. Strain the broth and serve with 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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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 rich meaty flavour and body as it simmers.
Pearl barley
Its starch thickens the broth slightly and adds a chewy texture.
Carrot
Adds gentle sweetness and colour to the broth.
Onion
Adds savoury depth and aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Adding the pearl barley about 1 hour before serving. Pearl barley keeps absorbing liquid and softening the longer it cooks. Added too early, it can turn mushy and cloud the broth, so timing it near the end keeps it tender with a pleasant bite.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, barley, carrot, celery, parsley, 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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