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Barley Broth

A hearty broth made with pearl barley, lamb or beef, assorted vegetables, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Barley Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the barley

  1. Boil the pearl barley in 1 gallon of water gently for 1 hour.

Cook the meat and vegetables

  1. In a separate pot, place the meat with a small amount of water.

  2. Add the assorted vegetables, salt, and pepper to the meat.

  3. Cook until the meat and vegetables are tender.

Combine and finish

  1. Combine the meat and vegetables with the barley and water.

  2. Let the mixture boil gently for 2 hours or longer.

  3. Serve the broth 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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Barley + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pearl barley
Its starch thickens the broth and gives it body as it simmers.
Lamb or mutton chops
Releases flavor and gelatin into the broth as it cooks, adding richness.
Carrots, turnips, onions, celery
Add sweetness, aroma and soft texture to the finished broth.

The step that matters

Simmering gently for the long cook. Gentle heat keeps the meat tender and lets collagen break down slowly, while a hard boil can toughen the meat and cloud the broth.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (barley, lamb, carrot, turnip, onion, celery, pepper):

  1. Lentilsfits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Chickpeafits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against barley, lamb, carrot, turnip, onion, celery, 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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