Why this recipe works: To build a flavorful base for this simple but comforting soup in a slow cooker, the folks at America’s Test Kitchen (associated with Cook’s Illustrated magazine) said that they needed to get out a skillet to sauté a hefty amount of onions with tomato paste and thyme and then deglaze the pan with wine, scraping up the flavorful brown bits left behind.
This simple step made a world of difference in the soup’s flavor and allowed them to skip the tedious process of browning the meat. To further simplify things they used trimmed beef blade steak, which they shredded after it had become meltingly tender in the slow cooker – no need to cut the meat into pieces to start. You may chose, of course, to use another cut, if you prefer.
A mix of equal parts beef and chicken broth balanced this soup perfectly and, as with all of their slow cooker beef soups and stews, soy sauce added a surprising amount of (“umami”) flavor.
Since pearl barley [see Cook’s Note following the recipe] can absorb two to three times its volume of cooking liquid, they noted that they needed to be judicious in the quantity they added to the soup. A modest 1/4 cup was all that was needed to lend a pleasing velvety texture without overfilling the slow cooker with swollen grains.