Barley Water

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I didn't actually try this recipe. It's an old fashioned drink from England. I have a recipe from a Mrs Beeton's cookbook (English equivalent of Fanny Farmer and she makes it in a one pint recipe. She boils the pearl barley for only 2 minutes, strains it and then adds 1 pint of boiling water to the partially cooked barley, some sugar and lemon peel. This is covered and left to cool. It is then strained. This would eliminate the mush that one reviewer encountered. When I make it I add lemon juice after it's cold and make it in larger batches. In the UK you can buy it commercially but home made is better: more nutritious and you can adjust the sweetness to taste.

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Quite good. I thought it sounded weird at first, but I braved it. Very much worth it, more refreshing than iced tea, less harsh tasting and smoother. Made a small barley salad with the barley instead of discarding, seemed like a big waste.

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I tried the barley water and honey alone before adding the lemon and it was delicious too. However later I added the lemon and liked it. I would not have minded adding milk instead of lemon for a warm drink also. Thank you for this recipe.

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Extremely refreshing and delicious. I may never drink iced tea again.

Actually, using pearled barley in this recipe is fine. If you've turned this into a mush your heat was too high on the boil.

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Make sure you use hulled (husks removed only, not polished barley in this one. If you use pearled barley, it's cloudy and mushy. Love, love, love this recipe! We like to drink this warm when we have a cold coming on...and it can zap a sore throat.

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Became a thick, glutinous slurry. I diluted it 75% with sprite & added extra lemon juice & honey to give it some flavor. I also made a version with vodka, I just reduced the sprite. Others enjoyed it but I will not make it again, homemade lemonade will do amply!

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I have meant to post review about this for over a year. This is a delightful & refreshing drink that I remember my grandmother talking about. Thanks Alton for the recipe! I use the leftover barley to make Barley & Beef Stew.

Cheers!

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I had my doubt about the flavor of grain-water, but I was pleasantly surprised. This will definitely become a "regular" at my home.

To answer the question below regarding Vitamins: When food is boiled in water, many of the vitamins and minerals leech out of the food and into the cooking water. So really, by boiling you are extracting the nutrients. I'm not entirely sure about the heat sensitivity of any vitamins though.

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had my doubts, but it was great

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This is a very nice refreshing drink. I can see all sorts of ways to experiment with this - maybe pomegranate juice rather than lemons for example.