Why it works: Barley and sugar work together. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 755 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Barley Water
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and boil
Thoroughly wash the pearl barley to remove any musty flavor.
Put the barley over the fire in 2 quarts of cold water.
Boil until reduced to 1 quart.
Strain and serve
Strain and cool the liquid.
Add a little sugar if permitted by your doctor.
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.
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Barley + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together755 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 grain flavor into the water, giving the drink its body and mild taste.
The step that matters
Boil until reduced to 1 quart. Boiling draws starch and flavor out of the barley and concentrates the liquid. Reducing too far makes the drink too strong and thick, while stopping early leaves it weak and thin.
“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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