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Scots Kale

A hearty barley and beef soup with kale and optional leeks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Barley and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 142 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Scots Kale

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Place barley in cold water and bring to a boil.

  2. Skim off the scum that forms on top.

  3. Add the piece of fresh beef and salt, then let it boil for three hours.

Prepare the kale

  1. Meanwhile, boil the kale in a separate pot until tender.

  2. If desired, add the leeks to the kale while boiling.

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 + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together142 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Kale + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Barley + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together458 recipes

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

  4. Barley + kaletop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Beef + leektop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together659 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Barley
Thickens the broth and adds a chewy texture as it cooks.
Fresh beef
Adds savory meaty flavor to the broth during the long simmer.
Kale
Adds earthy flavor and body; it softens as it boils until tender.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum from the barley water. Foam that rises as the water comes to a boil carries impurities and proteins that can cloud the broth and taste bitter if left in the pot.

Swap the leek

The recipe marks leek as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (barley, beef, kale):

  1. Turnipfits about as well
  2. Leekthe original
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Shallotfits less well

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