Beef-Barley Soup With A Few Tricks Up Its Sleeve

Considering our Beef, Barley and Bone soup is served with a marrow bone (see the recipe), you might assume it would hit you over the head with oversized flavors.

Not so: This soup is surprisingly nuanced and has a few nice surprises up its slurpable sleeve.

Like pretty much everyone, we're into saying "umami" a lot—and finding ways to sneak it into everything we make. Playing with ways to up that elusive fifth taste, the Test Kitchen added bonito flakes to the meaty beef stock.

Then, to get the nice taste of barley soup without a ton of barley, we simply infused the soup with barley tea, which imbues the whole thing with a nice nutty barley-ness without overshadowing the meat.

These are flavors to warm you on a cold winter night. Make no bones about it.