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Cream of Barley

A veal and barley soup thickened with cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Veal and barley work together. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 162 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Cream of Barley

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the base

  1. Trim all fat from the veal cutlet and cut the lean meat into small pieces.

  2. Place the meat in a saucepan with 1 pint of cold water.

  3. Add the soaked barley and salt to the saucepan.

  4. Bring to a gentle boil and simmer for 2 hours.

Strain and smooth

  1. Strain the liquid into a basin, then pound the meat and barley together in a mortar.

  2. Set a fine sieve over a basin and transfer the pounded mixture onto the sieve.

  3. Rub the mixture through the sieve with a wooden spoon, adding the strained liquid to help it pass through.

  4. Once all has passed through, stir in 2 tablespoons of cream smoothly.

Serve

  1. When ready to serve, warm the Cream of Barley gently, avoiding boiling to prevent curdling.

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. Veal + barleytop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together162 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Barley + creamtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together301 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Veal + creamtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal cutlet
Provides the savory meat flavour and body that gives the soup its character.
Barley
Its starch thickens the liquid as it cooks and breaks down, giving the soup body.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Warming the finished soup gently. Cream contains milk proteins that can curdle or separate when overheated or boiled. Warming slowly over low heat keeps the soup smooth and creamy.

“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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