Name: Excellent Barley Water
Ingredients: two tablespoonsful of pearl barley

Excellent Barley Water

Ingredients

two tablespoonsful of pearl barley

Directions

Steep the barley

Place two tablespoons of pearl barley, a lump or two of sugar, a grain or two of salt, and a thin strip of lemon peel into a quart jug.
Fill the jug with boiling water and stir gently for a few minutes.
Cover the jug and let it stand until it is perfectly cold.
Let the mixture stand for up to twelve hours, or overnight, before use.

Finish and repeat

Add a glass of calf's feet jelly to the barley water (optional).
After pouring off the first batch, refill the jug with boiling water and repeat the steeping process one or two more times.

By Eliza Acton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Pearl barley: Releases starch and grain flavour into the water, giving the drink its body and mild taste.
Sugar (in the method): Adds sweetness to balance the plain, grainy flavour of the barley water.
Lemon peel (in the method): Adds a fragrant citrus aroma to the steeping water.

“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.