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Drink

A Vert Fins Emmouent Drink

A drink made with pearl barley, sweet almonds, lemon, sage, and water, sweetened to taste.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 887 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

A Vert Fins Emmouent Drink

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the barley

  1. Wash and rinse the pearl barley thoroughly.

  2. Combine the barley, beaten almonds, and lemon peel in a pot.

  3. Boil until the mixture thickens to the consistency of cream and is smooth.

Finish the drink

  1. Stir in the lemon syrup and capillaire syrup.

  2. In a jug, add the sage, lemon slices, and lemon peel strips.

  3. Pour the boiling water over the ingredients, sweeten to taste, and let it cool.

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 + sagetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together887 recipes

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

  2. Barley + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together78 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetylpyrazine (roast).

  3. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Almond + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together61 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Pearl barley
Its starch thickens as it boils, giving the drink body and a soft, creamy texture.
Sweet almonds
Their fine ground fat and protein add richness and a creamy, milky mouthfeel.
Lemon syrup
Adds sweetness and bright citrus acidity that balances the rich base.
Capillaire syrup
Adds sweetness and a light floral, orange-blossom aroma to the drink.
Lemon slices
Release citrus oils and acidity into the steeping water, adding aroma and tang.

The step that matters

Boil the barley mixture until smooth. Barley starch must be cooked long enough to thicken and smooth the base. Undercooked starch leaves the drink gritty and thin, while the almond fat and starch together give it a creamy body.

Swap the sage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (barley, almond, lemon, syrup, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against barley, almond, lemon, syrup, sugar. 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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