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Pearl Barley Soup, H. LA Princesse

A simple soup made with pearl barley, water, onion, carrots, celery, salt, pepper, and fresh herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Pearl Barley Soup, H. LA Princesse

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the soup

  1. Rinse the pearl barley under cold water.

  2. In a pot, combine the barley and water; bring to a boil.

  3. Add the onion, carrots, and celery; reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

  4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve

  1. Serve hot, garnished with fresh herbs.

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

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

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Barley + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together784 recipes

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

  5. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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 broth and gives the soup a chewy, hearty texture.
Onion
Builds savory depth and sweetness as it softens in the simmering liquid.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and a tender bite as they cook through.
Celery
Contributes mild savory flavor and aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Simmering the barley. Pearl barley needs a long, gentle simmer to soften fully. Cooking too hard can break up the grains and cloud the broth, while too short a time leaves the grains firm. The 30-minute simmer is the main cooking time in this record.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against barley, carrot, 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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