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Pearl Barley As a Substitute for Rice

A pudding made from pearl barley, milk, and eggs, cooked and served warm.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Barley and milk work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 598 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity. The science ↓

Pearl Barley As a Substitute for Rice

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Cook the barley

  1. Rinse the pearl barley under cold water.

  2. In a pot, bring 4 cups of water to a boil.

  3. Add the rinsed barley and cook until tender, about 30 minutes.

Make the custard base

  1. In a separate saucepan, heat 2 cups of milk until warm.

  2. In a bowl, beat the eggs and gradually mix in the warm milk.

  3. Combine the cooked barley with the milk and egg mixture, stirring well.

  4. Serve warm as a pudding.

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 + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  2. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  3. Barley + eggtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together380 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pearl barley
Provides the starchy, chewy body that gives the pudding its substance.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess, softening the barley into a spoonable texture.
Eggs
Enriches the mixture and helps it set and thicken gently when warmed.

The step that matters

Gradually mixing the warm milk into the beaten eggs. Adding warm milk slowly raises the egg temperature gradually, so the eggs blend smoothly instead of scrambling into lumps.

“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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