Barley Water
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the barley
Wash and pick the pearl barley.
Pour 1 cup of water over the barley and boil for 10 minutes.
Drain the barley and add 3 cups of boiling water.
Make and finish the barley water
Boil the mixture until it reduces by half.
Strain through a fine sieve or muslin.
If desired, dissolve gum arabic in the liquid and sweeten to taste.
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
What each ingredient does
- Pearl barley
- Starch and husk material that gives the drink its body and mild, grainy flavour.
- Gum arabic
- Adds body and a smoother mouthfeel to the finished liquid.
The step that matters
Boil the mixture until it reduces by half. Reducing concentrates the flavour and extracts more of the barley's starch and soluble compounds, so the drink tastes fuller. Stopping too early gives a weak drink, while over-reducing makes it too thick and strong.
“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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