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Dr. Kitchiners Receipt to Make Barley Broth

A savory broth made with barley, onions, water, and optional fat, thickened with oatmeal and seasoned with celery seed, cayenne, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Dr. Kitchiners Receipt to Make Barley Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine washed barley, sliced onions, and water in a large pot; boil gently for 1 hour.

  2. Pour the broth into a pan and return it to the pot.

Thicken and season

  1. Melt the drippings or suet in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the oatmeal to form a paste.

  3. Gradually add the barley broth, stirring well until it boils.

  4. Mix the celery or cress seed and cayenne or pepper with a little soup in a cup, then pour it into the pot.

  5. Simmer gently for an additional 15 minutes, then season with salt and serve.

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

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

  2. Barley + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together571 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  3. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Scotch barley
Releases starch as it simmers, giving the broth body and a hearty texture.
Oatmeal
Forms a paste with the melted fat and thickens the broth as it is added.
Beef or mutton drippings
Adds fat that carries flavor and gives the broth a rich, savory mouthfeel.
Sliced onions
Contribute sweetness and savory aroma as they cook into the broth.

The step that matters

Adding the barley broth to the oatmeal paste. Adding liquid gradually while stirring keeps the oatmeal from clumping into lumps, so the broth thickens smoothly as it comes to a boil.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (barley, beef, celery, pepper):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against barley, beef, 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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