Skip to main content
Main

Barley Stew

A hearty stew of meat, onions, barley, potatoes, and flour simmered in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Barley Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the meat into small pieces.

  2. In a large saucepan, combine the meat, onions, barley, and water.

Cook the stew

  1. Bring to a boil slowly, skimming the stew as it begins to boil.

  2. Reduce heat to maintain a gentle simmer for 3 hours.

  3. Mix the flour with a little cold water, then add it to the stew along with the potatoes, salt, and pepper.

  4. Simmer for an additional hour.

  5. For added texture, stir in pieces of stale bread during the last 10 minutes of cooking.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + barleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together165 recipes

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

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Onion + barleytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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
Swells during long simmering, thickening the stew and giving it a chewy body.
Flour
Mixed with cold water and stirred in, it thickens the broth as it heats.
Potatoes
Break down slightly as they cook, adding starch that gives body to the stew.
Onions
Soften over long cooking, adding sweetness and savory depth to the broth.
Meat
Releases flavor and gelatin into the broth during the long, gentle simmer.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil slowly, skimming the stew. Heating gently and skimming off the foam that rises as it boils removes impurities, keeping the broth clear and clean-tasting. Rapid boiling would also toughen the meat and cloud the liquid.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, potato, barley, pepper, flour):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, potato, barley, pepper, flour. 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.

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipesSweet Potato CroquettesSweet Potato Croquettes53 recipes