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Drink

Barley Water

A simple beverage made by boiling pearl barley, reducing the liquid, and optionally adding lemon, sugar, and other flavorings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 Water

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the barley

  1. Wash the pearl barley.

  2. Boil the barley in a small amount of water, then pour off the water.

Make the barley water

  1. Add 1 quart of fresh water.

  2. Boil until reduced by half.

  3. Optionally, add lemon peel, lemon juice, cream of tartar, and sugar to taste.

Steep and strain

  1. Pour boiling water over the barley.

  2. Let it stand for 15 minutes.

  3. Pour off the clear liquid.

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.

  1. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Barley + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together484 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Barley + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together755 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Barley + creamtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together301 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Pearl barley
Gives the water its mild, grainy flavour and body as it boils and steeps.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity, giving the drink a bright, tart edge that balances sweetness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness, rounding out the tartness of the lemon.
Gum arabic
Adds body and a smoother mouthfeel, helping the drink feel fuller.

The step that matters

Boil until reduced by half. Boiling concentrates the barley's flavour and starch in the remaining liquid. Stopping too early leaves the drink weak, while boiling too long over-concentrates it and can make it taste harsh.

Swap the lemon

The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (barley, cream, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against barley, cream, 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.

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