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Mice or Barley Soup

A simple soup made with rice or barley simmered in water with salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Mice or Barley Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the grain

  1. Put the rice or barley into plenty of cold water.

  2. Add salt when the water boils.

  3. Let it simmer for ten minutes.

  4. Drain the rice or barley.

Finish the soup

  1. Add the drained rice or barley to the boiling soup.

  2. Simmer gently for a few minutes longer.

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

What each ingredient does

Rice or barley
Starch that thickens the broth and gives the soup body and a chewy texture.

The step that matters

Draining before adding to the soup. Rinsing off surface starch from the first cooking keeps the broth from turning cloudy or gluey, so the grain stays separate and the soup stays clear.

“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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