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Barley Broth

A hearty soup made with pearl barley, meat, and vegetables simmered together.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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.

Make the soup

  1. In a separate stewpan, place the meat and add a small amount of water.

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

  3. Combine the barley and the meat mixture, and let it all boil gently for 2 hours or longer.

  4. Serve everything together.

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
Softens as it simmers, thickening the broth and giving the soup body and a chewy texture.
Meat (lamb, mutton, or lean beef)
Releases flavor and gelatin into the broth during long gentle simmering, adding richness.
Carrots
Add sweetness and color as they soften in the simmering broth.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and soft texture after long simmering.
Small onions
Contribute aroma and savory depth to the broth as they cook down.

The step that matters

Combine the barley and the meat mixture, and let it all boil gently for 2 hours or longer. Boiling too hard can break up the meat and cloud the broth, while too little time leaves the meat and barley tough and underdeveloped. A gentle simmer keeps the soup clear and tender.

Swap the peas

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against barley, meat, 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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