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Bakley Soup

A hearty soup of beef shin, pearl barley, parsley, onions, and potatoes simmered in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Bakley Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pot, combine the beef, pearl barley, parsley, onions, potatoes, salt, pepper, and water.

  2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer gently for 3 hours.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Barley + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together165 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Shin of beef
Breaks down during long simmering, becoming tender and adding rich meaty flavor to the broth.
Pearl barley
Absorbs liquid and swells, thickening the soup and giving it a chewy texture.
Potatoes
Soften as they cook, adding starch that thickens the broth and body to the soup.
Onions
Release sweetness and aroma as they simmer into the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 3 hours. A gentle simmer lets the tough shin of beef become tender without toughening the meat. A hard, rolling boil can make the meat tight and cloudy the broth.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Garlicfits about as well
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, barley, onion, potato, 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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