Name: Scotch Broth
Ingredients: 2 slices turnip; 1 slice carrot; 1 slice onion; 1 cup cooked barley; lean meat (equal to turnip amount); chopped parsley; coarse sea salt to taste; cold water

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 ↓

Scotch Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Dice the turnip, carrot, and onion into small, even pieces.

Cook the broth

Boil the diced vegetables in cold water for about 45 minutes until tender.
Cut the lean meat into small pieces and add it to the pot along with the cooked barley and chopped parsley.
Season the soup lightly with coarse sea salt and serve.

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.

Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,002 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Turnip + barleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together629 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,842 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,585 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

Barley: Thickens the broth and adds a chewy texture as it softens.
Lean meat: Adds savory flavor and protein-rich body to the soup.
Turnip: Adds mild sweetness and substance as it cooks until tender.

Swap the onion

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

Leekfits better
Parsnipfits better
Shallotfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turnip, carrot, barley, meat, parsley. 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.