Three hundred years of cold-weather wisdom in one pot

If the lamb bones add-on was invented for any single dish, it's this one. Scotch broth is what crofting families built out of mutton bones, barley and whatever the garden gave up — a soup so established that it's been warming people since before Australia had a name. Nothing about it is fancy and everything about it works: the bones make the broth, the barley thickens it, the vegetables sweeten it, and after two unhurried hours you've got the kind of pot that makes a cold Tuesday feel like an occasion. Bread and butter are not optional.

2 hrs 30 mins 6 servings Prep 20 minsCook 2 hrs 10 minsSoupScottish

Ingredients

  • 1kg Your Farmer lamb bones
  • 2.5 litres cold water
  • 150g pearl barley, rinsed
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 large brown onion, diced
  • 2 carrots, diced
  • 1 small swede, diced
  • 2 leeks, washed and sliced
  • Quarter of a savoy cabbage, shredded
  • Salt and pepper to season
  • Chopped parsley, to serve

Instructions

Put the bones in your biggest pot, cover with the cold water and bring slowly to a bare simmer. Skim off the foam that rises in the first 10 minutes.

1kg lamb bones2.5L cold water

Add the barley and bay leaves and simmer very gently, partly covered, for 1 hour.

150g pearl barley2 bay leaves

Add the onion, carrot, swede and leek and simmer for another 45 minutes, until the barley is plump and the vegetables are completely tender.

1 onion2 carrots1 swede2 leeks

Lift out the bones with tongs. Pick off any meat, shred it, and stir it back into the pot; discard the bare bones.

Add the cabbage and simmer for a final 10 minutes.

quarter savoy cabbage

Season very generously — barley drinks up salt — and serve in deep bowls with parsley over the top and buttered bread or oatcakes alongside.

chopped parsley

Appears in

Lamb share add-on — Bones

Your Farmer CSA grass-fed lamb share — Pack B selection of pasture-raised lamb cuts, vacuum-sealed, NSW & ACT delivery
CSA Pastured Lamb Share
From $183.33

The Dish the Bones Were Named For

Scotch broth earned its place the hard way: centuries of Scottish winters, cooked in households where a sheep fed the family twice — once as meat, once as the bones that flavoured a week of broth. That thrift is the whole architecture of the dish. The bones give up gelatine over the long simmer, which is why the finished broth has a body that carton stock can't match, and the barley does double duty as grain and thickener. Old Scottish cooks judged the pot by its spoon: if the spoon didn't stand up in it by day two, it wasn't Scotch broth. The Your Farmer® bag of lamb bones is as close to the original starting point as a modern kitchen gets.

Swaps and Variations

A small handful of dried split peas added with the barley is entirely traditional and nudges the broth thicker and sweeter. Kale stands in for the savoy without complaint. For a meatier pot, swap the bones for lamb forequarter chops — bone-in, so the broth logic still holds — and shred the lot back in at the picking stage. Turnip is more traditional than swede if you can find a good one; both answer to "neeps" where this soup comes from.

Storage and Leftovers

Like every barley soup, this one thickens dramatically overnight as the grain keeps drinking broth — day-two Scotch broth is closer to a stew, and plenty of people (us included) think that's the better version. Loosen it with a splash of water as it reheats gently on the stove. It keeps 4 days in the fridge and freezes for up to 3 months in portions. Leftover idea: reheat it thick, crumble feta over the top, and don't tell the Scots.

Every box of our pasture-raised lamb share can carry the bones as an add-on — one tick, and the oldest soup in the book is back on your table.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to soak the pearl barley first?

No — pearl barley has had its outer husk polished off, so it cooks through in about an hour without soaking. Just give it a rinse to wash off the surface starch.

What's the difference between Scotch broth and lamb and barley soup?

They're close cousins. Scotch broth is the older, stricter template — bones or bone-in mutton, barley, and the classic neeps-leeks-kale vegetable set — while lamb and barley soup is the looser modern take. This version follows the traditional structure.

Can I use forequarter chops instead of bones?

Yes, and it makes a meatier pot. Use four chops, simmer them whole exactly as you would the bones, then shred the meat back in and discard the bones.

My broth is very thick the next day. Is that normal?

Completely — the barley keeps absorbing liquid overnight. Thin it back with water or stock as it reheats, or embrace the spoon-stands-up version.

Does Scotch broth freeze well?

Very well — up to 3 months in portion-sized containers. The barley softens slightly on thawing but the flavour, if anything, improves.

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