Beef barley soup starts with rich, intense stock
The star of our beef barley soup is a rich, intensely flavoured beef stock. We were able to make a from-scratch stock in about 2 1/2 hours thanks to a lot of browned beef (we prefer shank) and a few small bones.
Beef barley soup with mushrooms and thyme
Servings: 6
Start to finish: 1 hour 15 minutes
2 tablespoons vegetable oil 1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped 12 ounces white mushrooms, trimmed and sliced thin
1 recipe rich beef stock (recipe follows) plus 2 cups meat, shredded into bite-size pieces
1/2 cup canned diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 cup pearl barley
1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried 1/4 cup minced fresh parsley Salt and pepper
Heat one tablespoon oil in stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat until shimmering. Add onion and carrots and cook until vegetables are almost soft, three to four minutes. Add remaining one tablespoon oil and mushrooms and cook until mushrooms soften and liquid evaporates, four to five minutes longer.
Add beef stock and meat, tomatoes, barley, and thyme. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to low; simmer until barley is just tender, 45 to 50 minutes. Stir in parsley, season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve.
Rich beef stock
It took six pounds of beef and bones to make our stock. Here’s why: roasting and simmering just beef bones with some aromatic vegetables yielded beef stock that tasted like bone-enhanced vegetable liquid. We figured out that it was going to take more meat than bones to get deep beef flavour. We tested different cuts of beef and shanks, a common supermarket cut with exposed marrow bones, were our favourite, followed by marrow bone-enhanced chuck.
Not only was the shank meat soft and gelatinous, it was perfect for shredding and adding to our beef soups. Unlike other traditional stocks, ours was done in about 2 1/2 hours and was a one-pot, stovetop-only affair.
Use a Dutch oven or stock pot that holds six quarts or more for this recipe. Makes about eight cups stock and six cups meat Total time: 2 hours, 45 minutes 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 1 large onion, chopped
6 pounds beef shanks, meat removed from bones and cut into large chunks, bones reserved, or 4 pounds beef chuck, cut into 3-inch chunks, plus 2 pounds marrow bones
1/2 cup dry red wine
8 cups boiling water
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon salt
Heat one tablespoon oil in stockpot or Dutch oven over mediumhigh heat until shimmering. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly softened, two to three minutes. Transfer to large bowl.
Brown meat and bones on all sides in three or four batches, about five minutes per batch, adding remaining oil to pot as necessary; do not overcrowd. Transfer to bowl with onion. Add wine to pot and cook, scraping up any browned bits, until wine is reduced to about three tablespoons, about two minutes. Return browned beef and onion to pot. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook until meat releases its juices, about 20 minutes. Increase heat to high; add boiling water, bay leaves, and salt. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer slowly until meat is tender and stock is flavourful, 1 1/2 to 2 hours, skimming foam off surface. Strain stock through fine-mesh strainer and discard bones and onion; reserve meat for soup or other use.
Let stock settle for five to 10 minutes, then defat using wide, shallow spoon or fat separator.