Barley Soup
1 quart stock 2 tablespoons barley 1 teaspoon salt 1 quart water 1/2 saltspoon pepper Wash the barley and soak it in a quart of water; cook in the same water until tender; drain and add with the seasoning to the boiling stock.
Rice, tapioca or sago may be substituted for the barley.
A plain clear soup of the sort that opened a formal dinner. The method is simple, but two details in the text need decoding before you start.
- The stray last line"1/2 cup vermicelli, 1 quart stock" -- appears to be the ingredient line of the next recipe in the book, run on here. It is not part of the barley soup.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon was the smallest spoon on the table, generally reckoned at 1/4 teaspoon, so half of one is a scant 1/8 teaspoon of pepper. Season to taste at the end instead of measuring it.
- Which barleyThe book says only "barley," which in this period almost certainly means pearl barley, and that is what you will find. Two tablespoons in a quart of water is a very light hand, giving a clear broth with grains suspended in it rather than a thick soup. Hulled barley will need considerably longer cooking.
- Soaking and timingAn overnight soak shortens the simmer to roughly 30-40 minutes for pearl barley; unsoaked, allow closer to an hour. Cook it until tender but not burst, since the grains are meant to stay distinct in the finished bowl.
- Why the barley is cooked apartBoiling grain directly in stock clouds it and thickens it with released starch. Draining the barley before it goes into the stock is the whole point of the two-vessel method, and it is why the soup stays clear.
- StockThe book does not say which stock; a light beef or chicken stock, unsalted or lightly salted, suits the dish. Commercial broths are already salted, so hold back the teaspoon of salt until you have tasted.
- The substitutionsRice behaves much like the barley. Tapioca and sago are starch pearls that cook faster -- small pearls in minutes, larger ones needing a soak and longer -- and they will thicken the stock rather than sit in it. The recipe treats them as straight substitutes for the barley, cooked apart and drained; watch them closely either way.
- YieldA quart of stock serves four as a first course, and no more than two as a meal. It reheats well; the barley will keep absorbing liquid overnight.
Barley is often said to be among the oldest of the European soup grains, in the pot long before rice or pasta were household staples, and clear barley broth held a double reputation as both a dinner-party opener and invalid food — barley water was standard sickroom fare well into the twentieth century. What dates this version is the assumption that a quart of good stock is simply on hand, ready to be flavored with a spoonful of something; cookery instruction of Mrs. Fryer's era seems generally to have treated stock-making as a separate foundation lesson and built a whole range of clear soups on top of it, varying little more than the grain or pasta stirred in. The interchangeable list at the end — rice, tapioca, sago, vermicelli — is that system in miniature: one method, several names on the menu card.