Barley Gruel
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Boil the pearl barley in ½ pint of water.
Discard the water to extract the colouring matter.
Cook and strain
Put the barley into 3 pints of boiling water.
Boil until the mixture reduces to half its original quantity.
Strain the mixture 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 as it simmers and releases flavour into the water.
The step that matters
Boil until the mixture reduces to half. Reducing by half concentrates the liquid and the dissolved barley starch, so the final thickness depends on how far it is cooked. Stopping too early leaves it thin, and boiling too long makes it dense.
“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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