Skip to main content
Main

Barley Stew

A hearty stew of meat, onions, barley, potatoes, and flour simmered in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Barley Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the meat into small pieces.

  2. In a large saucepan, combine the meat, onions, barley, and water.

Simmer the stew

  1. Bring to a boil slowly, skimming the stew as it begins to boil.

  2. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 3 hours.

  3. Mix the flour with a little cold water, then add it to the stew along with the potatoes, salt, and pepper.

  4. Simmer for an additional hour.

  5. For added flavor, stir in pieces of stale bread during the last 10 minutes of cooking.

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

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

  2. Potato + barleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together165 recipes

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

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Onion + barleytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,166 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Barley
Thickens the stew as it cooks and adds a chewy texture.
Meat
Provides savory flavor and richness to the broth.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften in the broth.
Potatoes
Add body and starch that helps thicken the stew.
Flour
Thickens the broth when mixed with cold water before adding.

The step that matters

Skimming while bringing to a boil. Bringing the stew to a boil slowly and skimming foam keeps the broth clear and removes impurities that would otherwise cloud the stew and taste bitter.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, potato, barley, pepper, flour. 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.

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipesSweet Potato CroquettesSweet Potato Croquettes53 recipes