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.
Scald the barley with boiling water.
Boil for 5 minutes, then strain.
Make the barley water
Add 2 quarts of cold water and simmer until reduced by half.
Strain again and add lemon juice to taste.
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
- Starch and husk compounds release flavour and body into the water as it simmers.
- Cold water
- Serves as the liquid base that the barley cooks and reduces in.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sweet, mild flavour of the barley water.
The step that matters
Simmer until reduced by half. Simmering concentrates the flavour and body of the barley water. Stopping too early leaves it weak, while over-reducing makes it thick and overly strong.
“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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