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Cream of Barley

A barley soup made with beef broth, carrots, onions, cream, milk, butter, and a pinch of sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Barley and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 784 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Cream of Barley

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Wash the barley thoroughly.

  2. Add the barley to the beef broth, carrot, onion, and salt.

  3. Cover and let simmer for 2 hours.

Finish and serve

  1. Press the mixture through a sieve and return it to the saucepan.

  2. Add the cream, milk, and butter.

  3. Beat well and bring to a boil.

  4. Skim off any foam, add a pinch of sugar, 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.

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. Barley + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Barley + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together458 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Barley
Thickens the soup as its starch softens during long simmering, giving it a creamy body.
Beef broth
Provides the main liquid and savory flavor that the barley cooks in.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture to the finished soup.
Milk
Adds moisture and mild sweetness, further softening the texture.
Butter
Adds fat for a rounder mouthfeel and a richer finish.

The step that matters

Pressing the mixture through a sieve. Pressing forces the softened barley and vegetables through the mesh, breaking them into a smooth purée. Skipping or rushing this leaves a grainy, lumpy texture rather than a silky cream.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (barley, beef, onion, cream, milk, butter, sugar):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against barley, beef, onion, cream, milk, butter, sugar. 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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