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Drink

French Barley Water

A simple hot beverage made by boiling pearl barley in water, then sweetening and optionally adding citrus.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

French Barley Water

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the barley

  1. Boil the pearl barley in 2 quarts of water until tender, skimming off any foam that rises.

  2. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.

Sweeten and flavour

  1. Sweeten to taste.

  2. Add lemon peel or juice from any fruit if 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

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Barley + orangetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together79 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pearl barley
Its starch and soluble compounds give the water a light body and a mild, grainy flavour.
Sweetener
Adds sweetness to balance the barley's mild, slightly earthy flavour.
Lemon peel
Its oils add a bright citrus aroma.
Fruit juice
Adds acidity and fresh fruit flavour that lifts the drink.

The step that matters

Strain through a fine sieve. Straining removes the cooked barley grains and fine particles, leaving a clear, smooth drink. Skimming foam during boiling also keeps the liquid clean and free of bitter, scummy residue.

Swap the lemon

The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (barley, orange):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Limefits less well
  4. Blueberryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against barley, orange. 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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