Skip to main content
Main

Barley Porridge

A simple porridge made from barley, water, milk, and optional flour, sweetened with sugar and served with cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Barley Porridge

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the barley

  1. Wash the barley thoroughly, changing the water multiple times.

  2. Scald or blanch the barley by boiling it in cold water, then rinse.

Cook

  1. In a saucepan, combine the barley and water, and bring to a boil.

  2. Cook the barley until tender, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.

Season and serve

  1. Season with salt and pepper, and thicken with lentil or pea flour if desired.

  2. For serving, add cold milk, sugar, and optionally cream.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Barley + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together582 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Barley + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together897 recipes

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

  4. Barley + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Barley
Forms the body of the porridge and thickens as its starch cooks and softens.
Lentil or pea flour
Thickens the porridge further, adding body to the cooked grain.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the texture when stirred into the cooked barley.

The step that matters

Cook the barley until tender, stirring occasionally. Barley starch thickens as it gelatinizes, and the mixture can scorch on the bottom of the pan. Stirring spreads heat evenly and prevents burning while the grain softens fully.

“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.

More barley porridge recipes

Pearl 3 See all 39 →

You might also like

Cream of Barley SoupCream of Barley Soup10 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipes