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Barley Soup

A hearty soup made with pearl barley, onions, potatoes, water, milk, butter, thyme, parsley, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Barley Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pick and wash the barley.

  2. Chop the onions and slice the potatoes.

  3. In a large pot, combine the barley, onions, potatoes, and water.

Cook

  1. Boil gently for 4 hours.

  2. Add the butter, thyme, salt, and pepper to taste.

  3. When the barley is soft, stir in the milk and parsley.

  4. Boil the soup briefly and serve.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  3. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  4. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 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

Pearl barley
Provides the bulk and chewy texture that thickens the soup as it simmers.
Potatoes
Break down during long simmering to add body and starch to the broth.
Onions
Build the savory base flavour of the soup as they soften in the liquid.
Butter
Adds fat for a richer mouthfeel and rounder flavour.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Simmer until the barley is soft. Pearl barley needs prolonged gentle simmering to hydrate and soften fully. Stopping early leaves it firm, and a hard boil can break up the potatoes and cloud the soup.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (barley, potato, thyme, parsley, milk, butter, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against barley, potato, thyme, parsley, milk, butter, 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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