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Barley-water

Barley Water is a sweetened barley drink made with water, wine, nutmeg, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Barley-water

Why it works: Barley and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 136 recipes. Both carry maltol, which smells caramel, sweet. The science ↓

Barley-water

Ingredients

Directions

Make the barley water

  1. Put the pearl barley into 2 quarts of water.

  2. Bring to a boil, skim it clear, and boil until reduced by half.

  3. Strain the mixture and sweeten to taste.

Flavour and serve

  1. Add the wine and grated nutmeg.

  2. Serve lukewarm.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Barley + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together136 recipes

    Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).

  2. Nutmeg + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23,364 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Barley + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together755 recipes

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

  4. Wine + nutmegtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,356 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Barley + winetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together128 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

Nutmeg and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 23,364 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

Pearl barley
Starch from the grain thickens the water and gives it a soft, body-rich texture.
Wine
Adds acidity and a fruity aroma that brightens the mild barley flavour.
Grated nutmeg
Adds warm, aromatic spice that complements the wine and sugar.

The step that matters

Boil until reduced by half. Boiling concentrates the flavour and draws starch from the barley into the liquid. Stopping too early leaves the drink thin and bland, while over-reducing makes it too strong and syrupy.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Nutmegthe original
  4. Rosemaryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against barley, wine, 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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