Name: Barley and Milk
Ingredients: 3 ounces pearl barley; 1 quart milk; 2 ounces currants

Why it works: Barley and milk work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 598 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity. The science ↓

Barley and Milk

Ingredients

3 ounces pearl barley
1 quart milk
2 ounces currants

Directions

Boil the pearl barley in the milk until well cooked.
Add the currants.
If the mixture is too thick, add more milk.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Barley + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together598 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).
Milk + curranttop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,475 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Barley + curranttop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Pearl barley: Its starch thickens the milk as it cooks, giving the drink body.
Milk: Provides the liquid base and moisture that the barley cooks and softens in.
Currants: Add natural sweetness and a fruity flavour to the drink.