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Barley Soup

A hearty soup made with pearl barley, onions, potatoes, thyme, parsley, milk, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Barley Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pick and wash the barley.

  2. Chop the onions and slice the potatoes.

Cook the soup

  1. Boil all ingredients gently for 4 hours with the water.

  2. Add the butter, thyme, salt, and pepper to taste.

Finish and serve

  1. When the barley is soft, add the milk and parsley.

  2. Boil the soup again 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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  4. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 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 soup and its grains give it a chewy body.
Potatoes
Their starch breaks down during cooking, thickening the soup and adding body.
Onions
Long gentle cooking softens them and adds sweetness and savoury depth.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the sharpness of the broth.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for the full cooking time. Barley and potatoes need a long, gentle simmer in enough water to soften fully and release their starch. A hard boil can scorch the bottom of the pot and break the potatoes up unevenly, so keep the heat low.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (barley, potato, thyme, parsley, milk, butter, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against barley, potato, thyme, parsley, milk, butter, 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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