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 and boil
Wash the barley.
Put the barley, water, and lemon rind in a saucepan.
Boil slowly for 30 minutes.
Strain and sweeten
Strain the mixture and add the lemon juice.
Sweeten 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
- Releases starch into the water, giving the drink its light body and mild grain flavor.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances any added sweetness.
- Lemon rind
- Its oils add a fresh citrus aroma to the water as it simmers.
The step that matters
Boil slowly for 30 minutes. A gentle simmer draws starch and flavor out of the barley without boiling away too much water. A hard, rapid boil can reduce the liquid unevenly and make the drink taste harsher.
“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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