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Soup

Herring Soup

A soup made with water, barley meal, salt, pepper, vinegar, sweet herbs, and pounded meat of four red herrings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Barley and pepper work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 897 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Herring Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pot, combine 8 gallons of water and 5 pounds of barley meal.

  2. Boil the mixture until it reaches a thick jelly-like consistency.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, vinegar, and sweet herbs.

  4. Add the pounded meat of 4 red herrings and stir well.

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. Barley + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Barley + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together224 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + meattop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,777 recipes

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

  5. Barley + vinegartop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together102 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Barley meal
Thickens the water into a jelly-like body as its starch gelatinizes on boiling.
Red herrings
Supply the main savory, fishy flavor and protein of the soup.
Vinegar
Adds a sharp acidity that brightens and balances the rich, earthy flavors.

The step that matters

Boiling the barley mixture to a thick consistency. Barley starch thickens only as it cooks and gelatinizes in boiling liquid. Stopping early leaves the soup thin, while overcooking can make it gluey and heavy. Watch the texture closely rather than the clock.

“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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