Name: Barley Water for Gargling
Ingredients: 1 cup barley; 2 cups water; 1 tablespoon honey; 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar; briar leaves (to taste)

Why it works: Honey and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,586 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Barley Water for Gargling

Ingredients

Directions

Boil 2 cups of water in a pot.
Add 1 cup of barley and simmer until tender.
Pour the boiling barley water over briar leaves in a separate container.
Stir in 1 tablespoon of honey and 1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar.

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.

Honey + vinegartop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,586 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,776 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Honey + white winetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together157 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Barley + honeytop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together78 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Barley + white winetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together55 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).