Why it works: Barley and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 568 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Beef Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Simmer the broth
Place the shank of beef in a pot and cover with cold water.
Bring to a boil, then skim off any foam.
Reduce heat and simmer all day.
Strain and finish
Strain the broth and let it sit overnight.
Skim the fat off the top before using.
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.
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.
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Barley + ricetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together568 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Beef + barleytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together458 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Beef + ricetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,265 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef shank
- Provides the main beef flavor, and its connective tissue softens into gelatin that gives the broth body.
“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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