Shame. Scotch broth wouldn't use lamb chops. Far too expensive. Get some cheaper cuts of mutton for the broth.

I’d use neck. Loads of flavour from the bones.

Thanks floral, good idea.

These BBQ chops I’ve been mentioning are more accurately called forequarter chops.

I found this definition on Google

“The forequarter chop is prepared from the side of the lamb. It's made up of many cuts including the neck, shank and shoulder rack. This economical cut is best slow cooked using either a moist method, such as braising or stewing, or by slow roasting. Forequarter chops are the largest lamb chops available.”

I don’t remember having these forequarter chops available to buy when I lived in UK, but it was 30 years ago. Maybe they do now.

Has anyone experienced the vile sprouted carrot taste ?

Ah, when you said they were the cheapest chops and chewy I thought, "I wonder if they're forequarter chops?" I scored a quarter of a mutton a couple of weeks ago at my local butcher. Abattoirs don't often get mutton any more (my butcher and I have discussed this quite a few times :-) ). He was collecting his order and saw they had some muttons so bought a few and broke them down into packs with a leg roast (we had ours this weekend past and it was delicious!), about a dozen loin chops, about 8 forequarter chops and some random bits including ribs. Mutton makes the best curry (that or goat, IMO).

Your post has inspired me to defrost the random bits and some forequarter chops and toss them into the crock pot overnight for scotch broth on the weekend!

I haven't experienced the vile sprouted carrot taste, but I imagine sprouting engenders some chemical reactions in the carrot (conversion of the sugars to something else, for instance) which resulted in the nasty flavour.

Such a shame about the carrots! Did you throw it out? If not, might I recommend to go exotic? In my youth, I made a lot of soups from whatever needed using, and which sometimes didn't taste good together. Turmeric was the yummifier. It could fix just about anything and was plentiful and cheap, With the foul carroty, I'd also add a lot of cracked black pepper and something sweet like caramelized onions (or fresh carrots, or even sugar or honey), too, It wouldn't be Scotch broth, but it could be good, depending on just how foul it was. Bitter and earthy, worth a try. Strong tones of the compost heap, better to throw it out.

How weird. I've never detected a bitter taste in sprouted carrots, but then the sprouts are usually pretty tiny on the ones I've encountered. Maybe the carrots were a bit bitter to start with?

I keep dehydrated carrots on hand for when I need them in a broth or soup. They also rehydrate well with dehydrated peas for a side dish.

I added some dehydrated carrots to a chicken chili sauce that I made a few days go, and they balance the chilies by adding a slight bit of sweetness.

I pretty much only buy fresh carrots at the farmer's market and make a point to use them up quickly or freeze them.

Carrots can add a sweetness to a meat dish that I don’t like. I’ve also had the occasional terrible tasting carrot. I usually cutup the crrots and then gnaw on the remaining end. I can tell then if I have ”bad” carrots.

It’s really too bad about going to all that work and have it ruined in the end.

Good going on getting that mutton Colleenoz and trust your soup will be delicious.

Plllog, It was beyond doctoring up I’m afraid. The taste had gone through everything and was really so nasty that the ‘mind‘ kicks in and I imagined the awfulness of the taste for days.

Carolb, yes perhaps they were off to start with... never happened before.

Lars, good to have those dehydrated carrots on hand. I’ve never tried freezing carrots as we usually eat them quickly, this packet got away from me. Carrots are always plentiful, we buy a kilo bag (2.2 lbs) most places for about 59 cents. The fancy ones are more expensive of course.

Hi Kate, so Yes you’ve had a terrible carrot. They exist. Wish I had popped in a bit of carrot to chew while cutting up.

I always taste my carrots. I have had carrots that were just too too "carrotey"....seems it had nothing to do with sprouts, just carrotey carrots.

Wow, Neely! I've never met an ordinary vegetable that was that bad. Carrots can be unexpectedly bitter, especially if they're harvested too soon as I've just learned, but that can be countered. I did a search trying to figure out what else with no luck. I realize now that I have a habit of putting the odd bit of what I'm cutting in my mouth (and eating it—even with rhubarb), and remembered my parents both did and I must have picked it up from them. I haven't had anything like your bad-memory-for-days carrot, but I guess this habit is about finding it! I never thought of that before, other than a general sense of knowing what the ingredients taste like. I hope another such carrot never crosses your threshold!

I always nibble on fresh raw veg while prepping. Pups get the root ends for a snack. Never have had an odd bitter carrot but celery can sometimes be bitter especially some of the outer stalks.

The only memorable horrid rotten veg was a jicama that looked fine and firm and juicy. At a family reunion i made spring rolls but did not taste the jimica. Not purchased one since. Once I finished all that labor of rolling i had one a spit it out. Going back through the prep scraps i found it. Stunk nasty up close. Like it fermented.

I had an avocado a few years ago that was firm forever. Finally cut it open and it was black inside.

I've not had an issue with slightly sprouted carrots, but carrots do easily absorb whatever they are planted in (sometimes, alarmingly so). Once, we had some carrots planted where some diesel had spilled (unknown to us). They were horrible, as you might expect.

My root vegetable experience includes my putting daikon radish spears in with some fresh cucumbers that I was using to make fresh pickles. The cucumbers were okay, but the daikon spears had such a strong flavor that I could not eat them, and I ended up giving them to a friend whose parents were from China. She told me her mother made similar daikon pickles.

Plllog not just bitter and I do realise it was a weird thing to happen to an ordinary vegetable (smile) DH was in complete agreement with me.

Strangely Gooster , the taste while not like diesel was chemical tasting.

Linda, I’ve always just taken their taste for granted.

Sleeve, I’ll have to look up what a jicama is, but yucky experience I guess.

Lars, I have found even pickled radishes can sometimes be unpleasantly strong.

Another of those differences. In Europe, the chops are super tender and very expensive.

Oh, yes, I worded that badly. I meant that my only experience was with bitter and that obviously wasn't what was wrong with your carrot, because of your description of just how bad and unsalvagable it was. Since it was chemical tasting and spread through the soup, I think you're right that Gooster was onto something, and it might have been something the carrot absorbed. It's beyond me that the carrot would have developed that bad of a thing just from sprouting.

Islay, the loin chops here (the kind like a little t-bone or the French kind with the long rib bone down one side) are very tender and expensive. But the forequarter chops look quite different and are from a different part of the lamb:

I made Scotch broth today from some mutton forquarter chops, ribs and neck chops which I roasted last night while I was making pizza and then tossed into the crock pot overnight to make stock and break down the meat. We enjoyed it very much and DH was a very happy camper after lunch! So thanks for the inspiration neely :-)