Name: Lemon Barley Water
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons pearl barley; ¼ lb sugar; 2 quarts boiling water; peel of 1 fresh lemon

Why it works: Barley and lemon work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 484 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Lemon Barley Water

Ingredients

2 tablespoons pearl barley
¼ lb sugar
2 quarts boiling water
peel of 1 fresh lemon

Directions

In a large bowl, combine pearl barley, sugar, boiling water, and lemon peel.
Cover and let it sit overnight.
Strain the mixture the next morning before serving.

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.

Barley + lemontop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together484 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Barley + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together755 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon 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: Adds a mild grainy flavor and a light body to the water as it steeps.
Sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the tartness of the lemon.
Lemon peel: Releases aromatic oils into the water, adding a bright citrus fragrance.