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Cream of Barley Soup

A veal-based soup with barley, cream, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Cream of Barley Soup

Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cream of Barley Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Fry the onion in butter until lightly browned.

  2. Add flour to the onion and mix to color it.

  3. Pour in hot water or veal broth, and season with salt, pepper, parsley, celery, and allspice.

Simmer the stock

  1. In a separate saucepan, add the veal and bone to 3 quarts of water, along with mutton trimmings if using.

  2. Bring to a boil, then add the contents of the frying pan.

  3. Simmer for 4 hours, skimming off any scum, then strain the soup.

Finish the soup

  1. Wash and boil the barley, then rub it through a sieve and add to the strained soup.

  2. Whisk in the hot cream and keep warm until 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. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + allspicetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,289 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle
Gives the broth its body and rich meaty flavor as it simmers for hours.
Barley
Thickens the soup as it breaks down when rubbed through a sieve.
Butter
Carries the onion's flavor and helps it brown lightly at the start.
Flour
Browns with the onion and helps lightly thicken the base.
Rich cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture when whisked in.

The step that matters

Whisk in the hot cream and keep warm. Cream can curdle or separate if it boils or overheats, so it should be added hot but not brought to a boil and kept gently warm.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter, flour, pepper, parsley, celery, allspice):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, flour, pepper, parsley, celery, allspice. 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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