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
Soak the barley in warm water for a few minutes, then drain.
Cook
Put the soaked barley in 3 quarts of cold water and cook slowly until soft.
Skim off any impurities.
Finish
Once cooled, 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
- Barley
- Its starch thickens the water and gives the drink a mild, body-rich texture as it cooks.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the mild sweetness of the cooked barley.
The step that matters
Cook slowly until the barley is soft. Gentle heat lets the barley soften and release starch evenly without scorching on the bottom of the pan. Rapid boiling can break the grains apart and make the liquid cloudy or stick to the pot.
“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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