Why it works: Barley and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 568 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Barley Muffins
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Mix the dry ingredients: barley flour, rice flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.
In a separate bowl, mix the beaten egg and milk.
Make and bake
Combine the wet and dry ingredients until just mixed.
Pour the batter into greased muffin tins.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until golden.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Barley + ricetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together568 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Barley + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together582 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + barleytop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together598 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Barley flour
- Provides the main flour body and flavor, but its low gluten gives a tender, fairly dense crumb.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas when moistened and heated, lifting the batter so the muffins rise.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds structure and richness as it sets in the oven.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flours and adds moisture and softness to the crumb.
- Rice flour
- Adds lightness and a tender, delicate texture by diluting the denser barley flour.
- Sugar or karo syrup
- Adds sweetness and helps the muffin tops brown in the oven.
The step that matters
Combine the wet and dry ingredients until just mixed. Stirring too long develops gluten and toughens the crumb, and it knocks air out of the batter. Barley flour has little gluten, but the baking powder starts reacting as soon as it meets liquid, so mix briefly and get the batter into the oven promptly.
“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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