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Dessert

Barley Pudding

A simple pudding made from barley, milk, sugar, and egg, baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Barley and milk work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 598 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity. The science ↓

Barley Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Mash the barley and soak it overnight in cold water.

Cook the barley

  1. Put the soaked barley into a pan with the milk and sugar; simmer until soft, about 30 to 45 minutes.

Assemble and brown

  1. In a pie dish, beat the egg slightly with a fork.

  2. Add the cooked barley and milk mixture to the egg, stirring well together.

  3. Brown in an oven at 350°F (175°C) or before the fire.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  2. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  3. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Barley + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together755 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
Provides the bulk and body, thickening the pudding as its starch softens during cooking.
Egg
Binds the pudding and sets it on baking, giving it a custard-like structure.
Milk
Supplies liquid that cooks the barley and gives the pudding a soft, creamy texture.
Soft sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the top brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Simmer the barley until soft. The barley must be fully softened before it is mixed with the egg, because hard grains stay chewy and do not thicken the pudding evenly. Soaking first shortens the cooking time and helps the grains take up liquid.

“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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