Why it works: Barley and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 568 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Broth Herbs, Soup Roots, and Seasonings
Ingredients
Directions
Use good quality meat for soup and stew until tender.
Add Scotch barley, pearl barley, and other grains as desired.
Incorporate vegetables like carrots, turnips, and onions for flavor.
Season with herbs such as thyme, parsley, and bay leaves.
Simmer until all ingredients are cooked through and flavors meld.
For a richer flavor, use fried onions and rub through a sieve before serving.
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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Barley + ricetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together568 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Barley + beanstop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together106 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Beans + ricetop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,017 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Beans + potatotop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together655 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Peas + beanstop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together949 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the peas
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (barley, flour, bread, beans, rice, potato, mushroom):
- Lentilsfits better
- Chickpeafits better
- Chestnutfits better
- Peasthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against barley, flour, bread, beans, rice, potato, mushroom. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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