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Barley Soup

A hearty soup made with pearl barley, onion, stock, butter, flour, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Barley and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,166 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Barley Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Blanch the barley.

  2. Melt the butter in a pot.

  3. Fry the sliced onion until soft.

  4. Add the flour and cook until browned.

Make the soup

  1. Gradually stir in the stock and season with salt and pepper.

  2. Bring the soup to a boil, then add the barley.

  3. Simmer gently for about 2 hours.

  4. Pass the soup through a wire sieve.

Finish and serve

  1. Reheat the soup.

  2. Stir in the sherry.

  3. Serve with fried bread.

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. Barley + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,166 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Barley + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together582 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Barley + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together897 recipes

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Pearl barley
Softens during simmering and thickens the soup as its starch releases.
Flour
Browned in butter, it forms a roux that thickens the stock.
Butter
Carries the onion and flour, adding richness and flavour to the base.
Onion
Softened by frying, it adds sweetness and savoury depth to the soup.
Sherry
Added at the end, it contributes acidity and a fragrant, wine-like aroma.

The step that matters

Add the flour and cook until browned. Flour must cook in the fat long enough to lose its raw taste and develop colour and nutty flavour. Stirring constantly prevents lumps and scorching, which would make the soup taste bitter and dull.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against barley, butter, pepper, flour, sherry. 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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