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Barley Broth

A hearty broth made with beef or sheep's head, barley, onions, potatoes, parsley, thyme, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Barley Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Put the beef or sheep's head into a pot with the water.

  2. Add the barley, onions, parsley, potatoes, and thyme.

  3. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  4. Simmer for 3 to 4 hours, stirring frequently to prevent burning.

Serve

  1. Serve very hot.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  4. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Parsley + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fleshy shin of beef or sheep's head
Gives the broth its meat flavour and body as it simmers for hours.
Pearl barley
Its starch thickens the broth and gives it a hearty, soft texture.
Potatoes
Break down slightly as they cook, adding body and mild starchiness to the broth.
Onions
Release sweetness and savoury depth into the broth during long simmering.

The step that matters

Simmer gently and stir often. Barley and potatoes settle and stick to the bottom of the pot, which can scorch and taste burnt. Frequent stirring and a steady low simmer keep the broth clean-tasting and evenly cooked over the 3 to 4 hours.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, barley, parsley, potato, thyme, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, barley, parsley, potato, thyme, pepper. 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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