Barley Water for the Sick
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the pearl barley in cold water.
Boil the barley in 1 quart of water for 10 minutes.
Drain the water and add 3 pints of warm clean water.
Simmer and strain
Let it simmer until reduced to 2 pints.
Strain through a fine sieve for use.
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
What each ingredient does
- Pearl barley
- Its starch thickens the liquid and gives the water a light body as it simmers.
The step that matters
Simmering until reduced to 2 pints. Reducing the liquid concentrates the barley's starch and flavour, so stopping too early leaves it thin and stopping too late makes it overly strong. Measuring the volume keeps the result consistent.
“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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