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 Sugar for Children
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the barley
Soak the barley in lukewarm water for 2-3 minutes and drain.
Place the barley in a large pot with 4-5 quarts of water and bring to a boil.
Cook until the barley is very soft, then remove from heat.
Make the jelly
Mash the barley as thoroughly as possible and strain, discarding the solids.
If the strained mixture does not form a jelly when cool, it needs to be boiled longer.
Finish the candy
Mix the jelly with sugar and fry it until it reaches a candy consistency.
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
- Barley
- Its starch and soluble material are extracted into the water, forming the jelly base.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and, once cooked to candy consistency, gives the set, glassy texture.
The step that matters
Testing the jelly before adding sugar. If the strained liquid has not set into a jelly when cooled, it contains too little dissolved starch and water must be driven off by longer boiling. Sugar added to a thin liquid will not reach a proper candy texture.
“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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