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 barley thoroughly.
Put the barley into a small pot with boiling water.
Cook for a few minutes.
Pour off the water.
Simmer and finish
Add 2 quarts of fresh boiling water.
Cook slowly in a clean saucepan until the liquid is reduced by half.
Let it cool.
Flavor with lemon juice.
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
- Barley
- Provides the starch and grain flavour that gives the water its body and taste.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the cooked barley liquid.
The step that matters
Cook slowly until the liquid is reduced by half. Gentle simmering lets the barley release its starch and flavour gradually, while a hard boil can scorch the bottom of the pot and make the drink taste burnt.
“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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