Why it works: Barley and beef work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 458 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓
Barley Pudding
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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make and bake the pudding
In a large bowl, mix the washed pearl barley, new milk, cream, sugar, grated nutmeg, and salt.
Pour the mixture into a deep baking pan and bake for 1 hour.
Remove from the oven and stir in the beaten eggs, beef marrow, and grated bread.
Transfer the mixture to another pan and bake again until set.
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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Barley + beeftop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together458 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Barley + nutmegtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together136 recipes
Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Barley + breadtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together201 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pearl barley
- Forms the bulk of the pudding and gives it a chewy, starchy body as it cooks.
- Eggs
- Bind the pudding and help it set into a firm, sliceable custard once baked.
- New milk
- Provides the liquid that the barley absorbs and cooks in, creating a creamy base.
- Cream
- Adds richness and fat, giving the pudding a smoother, softer texture.
- Beef marrow
- Adds fat and richness, contributing moisture and a savory depth to the pudding.
- Grated bread
- Soaks up liquid and helps thicken the mixture, giving it more body.
The step that matters
Stirring in the eggs after the first bake. Adding beaten eggs to a hot, partly cooked mixture helps them blend evenly; the egg proteins then set during the second bake, so the pudding firms up rather than staying loose.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (barley, milk, cream, sugar, egg, beef, bread):
- Nutmegthe original
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Celeryfits less well
- Pepperfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against barley, milk, cream, sugar, egg, beef, bread. 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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