Name: Clear Barley Water
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon Barley; 3 cups Water; Small piece of Lemon Rind; 1 teaspoon Sugar

Why it works: Barley and lemon work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 484 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Clear Barley Water

Ingredients

1 tablespoon Barley
3 cups Water
Small piece of Lemon Rind
1 teaspoon Sugar

Directions

Prepare

Wash the barley well.
Place the barley in a jug with the lemon rind and sugar.
Pour 3 cups of boiling water over the mixture.

Cool and strain

Cover the jug and let it cool.
Once cooled, pour off the liquid for use.

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.

Barley + lemontop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together484 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Barley + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together755 recipes

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

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Barley: Gives the drink its mild grain flavour and a light, slightly starchy body.
Lemon rind: Adds a fresh citrus aroma to the liquid.
Sugar: Sweetens the drink and balances its flavour.