Name: Barley Gruel
Ingredients: 2 ounces pearl barley; 3 pints milk or water; cinnamon or lemon peel (optional); salt (optional); 2 ounces sliced figs; 3 ounces cut raisins; 4 drachms sliced liquorice root; honey (to taste)

Why it works: Cinnamon and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Barley Gruel

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the barley

Wash the pearl barley in two or three waters.
Boil the barley in fresh water for ten minutes, then change the water.

Make the gruel

Heat the milk or water and add it to the barley along with cinnamon or lemon peel, or just salt.
Strain the mixture.

Make the compound gruel

For compound barley gruel, boil the common barley gruel with sliced figs, cut raisins, sliced liquorice root, and a little lemon peel.
Boil until reduced by half and sweeten with honey to taste.

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.

Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Fig + honeytop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together228 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Cinnamon + figtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together614 recipes

Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).
Fig + raisintop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together737 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Barley + figtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together48 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: Forms the body of the gruel, thickening it as it cooks and releases starch.
Milk: Adds richness and a creamy, softer texture to the gruel.
Figs: Add natural sweetness and a soft, chewy texture to the compound gruel.
Raisins: Add concentrated sweetness and chewiness, and sugars that deepen the flavour as they simmer.
Honey: Adds sweetness, sweetening the gruel to taste at the end.

“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.