Skip to main content
Main

Pearl-barley

Pearl barley boiled with water, sweet almonds, lemon peel, lemon syrup, and capillaire.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Pearl-barley

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Rinse the pearl barley twice.

Cook

  1. In a pot, combine the barley, water, sweet almonds, and lemon peel.

  2. Boil until the mixture becomes smooth.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in a little lemon syrup and capillaire before serving.

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
Provides the main body as its starch thickens and its grains soften during cooking.
Sweet almonds
Add richness and a creamy, smooth texture to the cooked mixture.
Lemon peel
Adds a fragrant citrus aroma that flavors the cooking liquid.
Lemon syrup
Adds sweetness and bright citrus flavor at the end.

The step that matters

Boil until smooth. Barley starch gelatinizes as it cooks in water, thickening the liquid and softening the grains. As it thickens it can scorch on the base of the pot, so stir often and keep the heat controlled.

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.

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesAlmond SoupAlmond Soup60 recipesCream of Barley SoupCream of Barley Soup10 recipesAlmond SaladAlmond Salad6 recipes