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Soup

Cream of Barley Soup

A barley soup made with veal stock, pearl barley, cream, and coarse sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Cream of Barley Soup

Why it works: Barley and veal work together. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 162 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Cream of Barley Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup base

  1. Simmer the pearl barley in veal stock very gently for 1.5 hours.

  2. Remove one-third of the mixture to another kettle.

  3. Rub the remaining mixture through a sieve.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the whole barley and cream to the sieved mixture.

  2. Season with a little coarse sea salt.

  3. Stir until very hot and serve.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + vealtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together162 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Barley + creamtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together301 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Veal + creamtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Pearl barley
Provides body and a chewy texture once part of it is kept whole.
Veal stock
Supplies the main liquid and savory flavor for the soup.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Simmer the barley very gently. Gentle heat lets the barley soften and release starch slowly without sticking to the base or breaking apart. Vigorous boiling can scorch the bottom and make the texture gluey.

“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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