No. 378

Puree of Barley with Chicken Broth

Puree d'Orge au Bouillon de Volaille

Soak two ounces of pearl or other barley in cold water for twelve hours; wash it, then lay it in a saucepan and cover it well with four quarts of chicken bouillon (No. 188); boil and add more as the broth diminishes, boil until the barley bursts; continue to cook until the broth is thickened by the soluble parts of the barley, it takes about three hours to cook the barley; then strain forcibly and serve. A little butter and milk may be added if desired; serve in cups.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A long, gentle extraction rather than a soup in the ordinary sense: the barley is cooked until it disintegrates and its starch thickens the broth. The whole point is the three hours, so plan around it.

Scale it downFour quarts of broth to two ounces of barley is a sickroom kitchen working at Delmonico's scale, and much of the liquid is meant to boil away. A quart of broth to two ounces (about 1/3 cup) of pearl barley in a small saucepan gives roughly two cups of finished puree, or two to three servings in cups.
The soak is not optionalThe soak -- Twelve hours in cold water hydrates the grain and shortens the time it takes to burst. Pearl barley will soften without it; a coarser, less-polished barley of the sort 'other barley' may cover will benefit more from the long soak.
Bouillon de volailleNo. 188 is Ranhofer's chicken bouillon; look it up before you start, since its strength and seasoning are set there. Use a good unsalted chicken stock; anything already seasoned will concentrate over three hours of cooking.
Topping upKeep a second pan of hot broth alongside and add it as the level drops, always hot. Cold liquid stalls the simmer, and the barley needs steady heat to break down.
"Strain forcibly"Push the whole mass through a fine sieve with a ladle or the back of a spoon, scraping the underside to release the pulp. Discard only the bran and hulls. A blender will make it smooth but leaves a slightly gluey texture; the sieve is what gives the thin, clean body Ranhofer wanted.
Butter and milkWhisk in a teaspoon of butter and a splash of hot milk off the heat, at the last moment. Ranhofer treats both as optional.
Holding and reheatingBarley puree sets firm as it cools and thickens further overnight. Loosen with hot broth over low heat rather than water, which dulls it. It keeps two days refrigerated.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, gave The Epicurean (1894) a whole section of broths and purees for invalids, and it reads as a period medical document as much as a cookbook. Before intravenous feeding, the sickroom diet was liquid by necessity: strained, unseasoned, nutritionally concentrated, and served in a cup so a propped-up patient could drink it. Barley water and barley gruel were the oldest items in that repertoire, generally traced back through Galen and the classical physicians, and they survived into the nineteenth century as the standard convalescent food for fevers and stomach complaints. What distinguishes Ranhofer's version is that it is built on chicken bouillon rather than water, and finished with butter and milk — the restaurant kitchen quietly insisting that food for the sick should still taste of something.