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Getjel with Peael Barley

A warm beverage made by simmering pearl barley with cinnamon, sugar, and wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Barley and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 127 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Getjel with Peael Barley

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tea

  1. In a saucepan, combine pearl barley, cold water, and cinnamon stick.

  2. Bring to a gentle boil, partially covered, for 2 hours.

  3. Add sugar and wine, and boil for a few more minutes.

Strain and store

  1. Strain the mixture through a colander into a jug.

  2. Store in a cool place until needed, then warm in small quantities.

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.

  1. Barley + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together127 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cinnamon + winetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,170 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  4. Barley + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together755 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Barley + winetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together128 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Pearl barley
Simmers into the liquid, giving the tea its body and mild, nutty flavour.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour to the simmered liquid.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the grainy, earthy flavour of the barley.

The step that matters

Bring to a gentle boil, partially covered, for 2 hours. A gentle simmer lets the barley release its starch and flavour slowly without scorching on the bottom. A hard boil can evaporate too much liquid and make the pan stick, so the long, steady heat is what extracts the taste.

“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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