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Drink

A Very Fine Emmolient Drink

A drink made from pearl barley, ground almonds, lemon peel, lemon syrup, and capillary syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Barley and almond share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78 recipes. Both carry acetylpyrazine, which smells roast. The science ↓

A Very Fine Emmolient Drink

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and rinse the pearl barley thoroughly.

Make the drink

  1. Combine the barley, ground almonds, and lemon peel in a pot.

  2. Boil the mixture until the liquid thickens to the consistency of cream and is smooth.

Finish

  1. Stir in a little lemon syrup and capillary syrup.

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. Barley + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together78 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetylpyrazine (roast).

  2. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Barley + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together484 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Lemon + syruptop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,235 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Almond + syruptop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together746 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Pearl barley
Its starch swells and thickens the liquid as it cooks, giving the drink body.
Sweet almonds
Ground almonds add fat and protein that give a creamy texture and nutty flavor.
Lemon peel
Its aromatic oils add a bright citrus aroma to the drink.
Lemon syrup
Adds sweetness and a concentrated lemon flavor to finish the drink.

The step that matters

Boil until thickened and smooth. Barley starch thickens as it heats and can stick to the pot or scorch on the base. Stirring regularly and watching the texture keeps the mixture smooth and evenly thickened rather than lumpy or burnt.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against barley, almond, syrup. 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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