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Semi-Stewed Mutton and Barley Soup for 100 Men

A large batch of mutton and barley soup made with water, vegetables, salt, sugar, pepper, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Barley and flour work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 582 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Semi-Stewed Mutton and Barley Soup for 100 Men

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine 130 pints of cold water, 70 lbs of mutton, and 12 lbs of mixed vegetables in a large pot.

  2. Add 9 lbs 6 oz of barley, 1 lb 7 oz of coarse sea salt, 1 lb 4 oz of sugar, and 1 oz of pepper, then bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Once boiling, add 1 lb 4 oz of flour 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 + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together582 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Mutton + barleytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together510 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Provides the main meat flavour and richness to the broth.
Barley
Thickens the soup as its starches swell and soften during simmering.
Flour
Adds body and thickens the liquid when stirred into the boiling soup.
Mixed vegetables
Contribute sweetness and aroma to the broth as they cook.

The step that matters

Adding the flour once boiling. Flour added to boiling liquid can clump if not stirred well, because its starch granules hydrate unevenly. Stirring thoroughly disperses the flour so the soup thickens smoothly.

“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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