Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Barley Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the soup base
Boil the pearl barley in the soup stock until it reduces to a pulp.
Pass the mixture through a fine sieve.
Add enough well-flavored white stock to achieve a cream-like consistency.
Finish and serve
Heat the soup until boiling.
Remove from heat.
Stir in the beaten egg yolk and cream.
Add the fresh butter and serve with small cubes of bread fried in butter.
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.
-
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Barley + breadtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together201 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
-
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pearl barley
- Breaks down into a pulp that thickens the soup and gives it body.
- Egg yolk
- Enriches the soup and thickens it gently when stirred in off the heat.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, velvety mouthfeel.
- Fresh butter
- Adds fat for richness and a rounded, buttery flavor.
The step that matters
Stir in the egg yolk off the heat. Egg yolk thickens by gentle heat and can scramble or curdle if it boils. Removing the soup from heat before stirring in the beaten yolk and cream keeps the texture smooth.
“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.
More barley soup recipes
You might also like
Brown Bread461 recipes
White Bread80 recipes
Bread Omelette60 recipes
Oatmeal Bread51 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.