Why it works: Fig and raisin work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 737 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Barley Water
Ingredients
Directions
Boil pearl barley in ½ pint water for 45 minutes.
Add 2 quarts boiling water, chopped figs, and seeded raisins.
Boil for 30 minutes and strain.
Add a little lemon juice and sweeten 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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Fig + raisintop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together737 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Barley + figtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together48 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Barley + raisintop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together57 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Fig + lemontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together763 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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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 from the grain thickens the liquid and gives the drink its body.
- Figs
- Add natural sweetness and a mild, fruity flavour to the liquid.
- Seeded raisins
- Add concentrated sweetness and fruit flavour as they simmer.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (barley, fig, raisin, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Pearfits better
- Applefits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against barley, fig, raisin, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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