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English Barley Broth

A hearty broth made with barley, beef, and vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,979 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

English Barley Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Make strong stock by boiling bones from a rib roast or steak with underdone beef for 6 hours, or use chopped lean beef and cracked cooked bones with water for 4 hours.

  2. Let the stock cool, then remove the fat.

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Parboil the diced onion, carrot, and turnip, then drain the parboiled vegetables.

Cook the broth

  1. In a soup kettle, combine the parboiled vegetables, soaked barley, and cold stock.

  2. Bring to a slow boil and maintain for 1 hour.

  3. Add parsley.

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. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the savory, meaty flavor and body that define the broth.
Barley
Releases starch as it cooks, thickening the broth and adding a chewy texture.
Carrot
Adds mild sweetness and color to the broth.
Turnip
Contributes a mild, slightly earthy sweetness and soft texture.
Onion
Adds aromatic depth as it softens into the broth.

The step that matters

Maintain a slow boil for 1 hour. A vigorous rolling boil breaks down the vegetables and barley and makes the broth cloudy. A gentle, steady simmer keeps the barley tender and the broth clear.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, turnip, barley, parsley, marjoram, pepper):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, turnip, barley, parsley, marjoram, pepper. 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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