Why it works: Veal and barley work together. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 162 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Cream of Barley
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the veal and barley
Trim all fat from the veal cutlet with a sharp knife.
Cut the lean veal into small pieces and place in a saucepan with 1 pint of cold water.
Add the washed and soaked barley and ¼ teaspoon of coarse sea salt.
Simmer and strain
Bring the saucepan to a boil and let it simmer for 2 hours.
Strain the liquid into a basin, then pound the meat and barley together in a mortar.
Place a fine sieve over a basin.
Transfer the pounded mixture onto the sieve and rub it through with a wooden spoon.
Pour the strained liquid over the sieve to help the pulp pass through.
Finish the soup
Once all has passed through, stir in 2 tablespoons of cream until smooth.
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.
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Veal + barleytop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together162 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Barley + creamtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together301 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Veal + creamtop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,202 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Veal cutlet
- Its meat and connective tissue release flavour and body into the broth during long simmering.
- Barley
- Its starch thickens the soup and gives it a smooth, hearty texture when pulped.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.
The step that matters
Rubbing the pulp through the sieve. Pressing the pounded meat and barley through a fine sieve breaks down the particles and removes fibres, which is what gives the soup its smooth texture. Skipping or rushing this leaves a grainy result.
“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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