Name: Barley Water
Ingredients: 2 ounces Pearl Barley; ½ pint boiling water; 2 quarts boiling water; 2 ounces Figs, sliced (optional); 2 ounces Raisins, stoned (optional); ½ ounce Liquorice, sliced and bruised (optional); 1 pint water (optional)

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

2 ounces Pearl Barley
½ pint boiling water
2 quarts boiling water
2 ounces Figs, sliced (optional)
2 ounces Raisins, stoned (optional)
½ ounce Liquorice, sliced and bruised (optional)
1 pint water (optional)

Directions

Prepare the barley

Wash the Pearl Barley with cold water.
Put the barley into ½ pint of boiling water and boil for 5 minutes.
Pour off the water and add 2 quarts of boiling water.

Reduce and flavor

Boil until reduced to 2 pints, then strain.
For flavored barley water, add figs, raisins, liquorice, and 1 pint of water to the strained barley water.
Boil until reduced to 1 quart, then strain again.

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.

Fig + raisintop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together737 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Barley + figtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together48 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Barley + raisintop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together57 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pearl barley: Starch released during boiling thickens the liquid and gives the drink its body.
Figs: Add natural sweetness and a mild fruity flavor to the flavored version.
Raisins: Add sweetness and a rich, fruity flavor to the flavored version.
Liquorice: Adds a distinctive sweet, aromatic flavor to the flavored version.

“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.