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 ↓
Barley Water
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the barley
Wash the pearl barley under cold water.
In a saucepan, combine the barley with 4 cups of cold water and bring to a boil.
Discard the water, then add another 4 cups of cold water and boil for at least 1 hour until the barley is soft.
Stir and skim occasionally during cooking.
Strain and finish
Strain the mixture through a muslin cloth.
Sweeten to taste and add lemon juice if desired.
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 + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together484 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pearl barley
- Softens during long boiling and releases starch and flavour into the water, giving the drink its body.
The step that matters
Discarding the first water after boiling. The first boil pulls out surface starches and impurities from the barley. Discarding that water and starting with fresh cold water keeps the drink clearer and cleaner tasting.
“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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