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Drink

Barley Water

Barley water is a beverage made by boiling barley with water, figs, raisins, and liquorice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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

Directions

Prepare the barley

  1. Wash the Pearl Barley with cold water.

  2. Put the barley into ½ pint of boiling water and boil for 5 minutes.

  3. Pour off the water and add 2 quarts of boiling water.

  4. Boil until reduced to 2 pints, then strain.

Add the flavourings

  1. To 1 quart of the barley water, add the sliced figs, stoned raisins, sliced liquorice, and 1 pint of water.

  2. 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.

  1. Fig + raisintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

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

  2. Barley + figtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together48 recipes

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

  3. 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
Its starch releases into the water, giving the drink its body and mild, cereal flavour.
Figs
Add natural sweetness and a soft, mellow flavour as they simmer.
Raisins
Add sweetness and a deeper fruity flavour to the liquid.
Liquorice
Adds a distinct aromatic sweetness that flavours the drink.

The step that matters

Boil until reduced to 2 pints, then strain. Boiling concentrates the barley's starch and flavour, while straining removes the grains and solids so the liquid stays clear and smooth. Reducing too far makes the drink thick and overly strong.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (barley, fig):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against barley, fig. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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