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Meat Soup with Rice, &C.

A hearty beef soup made with rice, Scotch barley, onion, and seasoning, simmered until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and barley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 568 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Meat Soup with Rice, &C.

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine the beef and water in a large pot.

  2. Bring to a boil.

Simmer and serve

  1. Add the rice, Scotch barley, onion, and seasoning.

  2. Simmer for several hours until the meat is tender and flavors meld.

  3. Strain the broth.

  4. Serve hot.

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. Rice + barleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together568 recipes

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

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Beef + barleytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together458 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Coarse gravy beef
Provides the meat and rich flavor that the broth is built on as it simmers.
Rice
Thickens the soup slightly and adds body as its starch releases during simmering.
Scotch barley
Adds chewy texture and thickens the broth as its starch releases during long simmering.
Onion
Adds savory aroma and sweetness that deepens as it cooks into the broth.

The step that matters

Simmering until the meat is tender. Tough cuts of beef need long, gentle simmering so connective tissue breaks down into gelatin. Rapid boiling can toughen the meat and cloud the broth, so the heat should stay low.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, rice, barley):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, rice, barley. 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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