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Scalloped Baeley with Tomatoes

A baked barley dish with tomato sauce, butter substitute, onions, flour, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Scalloped Baeley with Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter substitute in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the flour, salt, and pepper, then add the tomatoes and onions.

  3. Cook until the mixture thickens.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a baking dish, layer the barley and sauce alternately.

  2. Top with breadcrumbs and bake at 350°F (175°C) until browned.

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. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Barley + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,166 recipes

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

  4. Barley + tomatotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together155 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked barley
Forms the bulk of the dish and gives it a chewy, hearty texture.
Flour
Thickens the butter and tomato mixture into a sauce as it cooks.
Butter substitute
Provides fat for cooking the flour and carries flavor into the sauce.
Cooked tomatoes
Adds moisture, acidity and savory flavor to the sauce.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping in the oven.

The step that matters

Cook until the mixture thickens. Flour must be cooked long enough to thicken the liquid fully; if undercooked, the sauce stays thin and can taste raw and starchy.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (barley, onion, butter, flour, pepper):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against barley, onion, butter, flour, 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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