Name: Barley Water
Ingredients: 2 ounces pearl barley; ½ pint boiling water; 2 quarts boiling water; 2 ounces sliced figs; 2 ounces stoned raisins

Why it works: Fig and raisin work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 737 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Barley Water

Ingredients

Directions

Add pearl barley to ½ pint of boiling water and let it simmer for 5 minutes.
Drain the barley and add it to 2 quarts of boiling water.
Add sliced figs and stoned raisins, and boil until the mixture is reduced to 1 quart.
Strain the mixture to serve as a drink.

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.

Fig + raisintop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together737 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Barley + figtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together48 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Barley + raisintop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together57 recipes

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

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 flavour into the water, giving the drink its body.
Sliced figs: Add natural sweetness and a mild fruity flavour to the liquid.
Stoned raisins: Add concentrated sweetness and fruit flavour as they soften and simmer.