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Barley and Tomato Soup

A hearty soup made with barley, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, parsley, and a soup bone.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Barley and Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Crack the soup bone and place it in the cold water.

  2. Heat gradually and skim when it boils.

  3. Add the barley and chopped onions, then stew gently for 2.5 hours.

  4. Skim off any grease that rises, then add the canned tomatoes after pressing them through a sieve.

Finish and serve

  1. Peel the potatoes, boil them until soft, and mash until smooth.

  2. Add the mashed potatoes and parsley, then continue cooking for 1 hour.

  3. Remove the meat and serve the soup in a tureen.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  4. Barley + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together165 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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

Pearl barley
Swells during long simmering, thickening the soup and giving it a chewy texture.
Canned tomatoes
Provide acidity and body, flavouring the broth with a bright tomato taste.
Potatoes
Mash into the broth, adding starch that thickens and gives the soup a smoother body.
Onions
Add savoury sweetness and aroma as they stew into the broth.

The step that matters

Skim off any grease that rises. Fat and foam rising from the bone can make the soup greasy and cloudy. Removing them before adding tomatoes and thickeners keeps the broth clean-tasting.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (barley, potato, onion, parsley):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against barley, potato, onion, parsley. 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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