Why it works: Thyme and barley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 189 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓
To Dress Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Stew the coarse meat gently in water.
Break the bones and allow it to boil for as long as possible.
If serving, boil the fish in some broth with oatmeal to thicken it.
If not serving, chop herbs and add them to the pot with the meat and onions.
Add a sprig of thyme for flavor instead of chopping it.
Use Scotch barley or bread crust to thicken the broth as desired.
Start with cold water and skim off any scum as it heats.
Let the broth cool, then remove all fat before using again.
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.
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Thyme + barleytop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together189 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Thyme + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,171 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Onion + barleytop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,166 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Barley + breadtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together201 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Meat + barleytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together224 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, thyme, barley, bread):
- Leekfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against meat, thyme, barley, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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