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Dessert

Barley Custard

A custard made with pearl barley, milk, eggs, sugar, and flavoring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Barley Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the barley

  1. Boil the barley in just enough water to cover it with a pinch of salt until tender.

  2. Drain the barley.

Make the custard

  1. Place the barley in a saucepan with the milk.

  2. Heat slowly until it boils.

  3. Pour in the beaten eggs and sugar.

  4. Return to the heat and stir until thickened.

  5. Transfer to a bowl.

  6. Let cool.

  7. Add flavoring.

Serve

  1. Pour into custard cups.

  2. Top with whipped cream if desired.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Barley + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together128 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Eggs
Thicken the milk as they cook and give the custard its set and richness.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the eggs set and the barley swells in.
Pearl barley
Adds body and a chewy texture to the custard once cooked until tender.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and softens its set slightly.
Corn-starch
Thickens the custard further so it holds its shape when cooled.

The step that matters

Return to the heat and stir until thickened. Egg proteins set around 170°F, so the custard must be heated gently and stirred constantly. Overheating causes curdling, while underheating leaves it runny.

“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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