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Soup

Barley Soup

A hearty barley soup made with stock, barley, fat, herbs, carrot, onion, mushroom ketchup, and celery.

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 Soup

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

  1. In a stone jar, combine the stock and barley.

  2. Add the dripping, salt, pepper, and herbs.

  3. Cover and place the jar in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for about three hours.

  4. After an hour, add the grated carrot, fried onion, mushroom ketchup, and chopped celery.

  5. Adjust the seasoning with additional flavorings like vinegar, garlic, or curry as desired.

  6. You may also add scraps of meat if available.

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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + carrottop 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. Carrot + oniontop 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

Barley
Thickens the soup as it cooks and gives it a chewy, hearty texture.
Stock
Forms the liquid base that the barley cooks in and carries the flavour.
Dripping
Adds fat for richness and a rounder, savoury mouthfeel.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma as it softens during the long cook.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, barley, pepper, carrot, mushroom, ketchup, celery. 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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