Why it works: Barley and lemon work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 484 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Barley-water
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the pearl barley well with cold water and discard the washings.
Boil the barley with 1½ pints of water in a covered pot for 20 minutes.
Strain and flavor
Strain the mixture.
Sweeten and flavor with lemon peel or lemon juice if desired.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Barley + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together484 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pearl barley
- Releases starch and a mild grain flavor into the water, giving the drink a light body.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity and brightness that balance the grain flavor.
- Lemon peel
- Adds aromatic citrus oils for fragrance without extra sourness.
The step that matters
Boil the barley in a covered pot. A lid slows evaporation, so the liquid stays close to 1½ pints and the barley cooks in a steady simmer. Boiling away too much water would make the drink too concentrated.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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