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Barley Soup

A barley soup made with milk, eggs, onion, and optional beef bones, simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Barley Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the barley broth

  1. Scald the barley and drain it.

  2. Put the barley into a pint of water and add the onion and parsley.

  3. If using, add the beef bones.

  4. Simmer gently for 3 hours.

Finish the soup

  1. In a double boiler, heat the milk and add the barley and the water it was boiled in, along with the softened onion.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. Lightly beat the yolks and place them in a soup tureen.

  4. Slowly pour in the soup while stirring continuously.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Barley + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together458 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 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
Provides body and a soft, thickened texture as it cooks down in the liquid.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the soup and adds richness and a mild sweetness.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the soup, giving it a smooth, velvety texture when stirred in.
Onion
Adds savory depth and aroma as it softens into the broth.

The step that matters

Slowly pour in the soup while stirring continuously. Egg yolks scramble if they meet hot liquid too quickly. Adding the hot soup gradually while stirring gently warms the yolks so they blend in smoothly and thicken the soup without curdling.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, barley, egg, onion, pepper, beef):

  1. Celeryfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Garlicfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, barley, egg, onion, pepper, beef. 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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