Name: Barley Cream
Ingredients: small quantity of pearl barley; milk; water; 1 quart of cream; whites of 5 eggs; 1 yolk of an egg; 1 tablespoon of fine flour; 2 tablespoons of orange-flower water; sugar to taste

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Barley Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the barley

Boil pearl barley in equal parts milk and water until tender.
Strain the barley, then add it to 1 quart of cream and bring to a boil.

Make the custard

In a bowl, beat the whites of 5 eggs and the yolk of 1 egg with 1 tablespoon of fine flour and 2 tablespoons of orange-flower water.
Remove the cream from heat and gradually mix in the egg mixture.
Return to low heat and stir until thickened.

Finish and serve

Sweeten to taste and serve cold.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

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.

Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Barley + flourtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together582 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Barley + orangetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together79 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Barley + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together598 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Whites and yolk thicken the cream as they set with gentle heat, giving the cream body.
Pearl barley: Softens into the cream, giving it a thick, grainy texture.
Cream: Provides richness and fat, giving the dessert a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Fine flour: Helps stabilise the egg mixture so it thickens without curdling.
Orange-flower water: Adds a floral aroma to the cream.

The step that matters

Adding the egg mixture to the hot cream. Egg proteins set at around 160°F and will scramble if they meet hot cream directly. Removing the cream from heat and mixing in the eggs gradually tempers them, so the custard thickens smoothly when returned to low heat.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (barley, milk, cream, egg, flour, sugar):

Vanillafits better
Raisinfits better
Figfits better
Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against barley, milk, cream, egg, flour, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.