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Soup

Cream of Barley or Rice

A creamy barley soup thickened with egg yolks and cream, served with croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Barley and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,166 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Cream of Barley or Rice

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Cook the barley and onion in 1 quart of boiling water for 45 minutes.

  2. Add the soup stock and cook until tender.

  3. Strain the mixture.

  4. Season with salt and pepper.

Finish and serve

  1. Serve with a thickening made of 1 cup hot cream stirred gradually into the 2 beaten yolks.

  2. Add a handful of croutons.

  3. Serve immediately to prevent curdling.

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 + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Barley + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together897 recipes

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

  4. Cream + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,827 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Pepper + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and onion barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,827 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Pearl barley
Softens as it cooks, giving the soup body and a hearty, thick texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the cream mixture when gently heated, giving the soup a smooth, rich body.
Hot cream
Adds richness and fat, mellowing the soup and smoothing its flavor.

The step that matters

Stirring the cream into the egg yolks. Adding hot cream to yolks gradually, while stirring, tempers them so they thicken smoothly. Adding it all at once or letting the soup boil after adding it can scramble the yolks and make the soup curdle.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (barley, pepper, cream, egg):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against barley, pepper, cream, egg. 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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