Skip to main content
Drink

Barley Water

A drink made by simmering barley in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
Jump to recipe ↓

Barley Water

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Rinse the barley under cold water.

  2. In a pot, combine the rinsed barley and water.

Cook and serve

  1. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

  2. Strain the liquid to remove the barley.

  3. Serve warm or cool as desired.

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

What each ingredient does

Barley
Releases starch and flavour into the water, giving the drink its body and taste.
Water
Extracts flavour from the barley and forms the liquid base of the drink.

“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.

More barley water recipes

You might also like