[Sca-cooks] Horchata - Barley Water

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On May 19, 2007, at 12:04 PM, Susan Fox wrote:

> On 5/19/07 8:44 AM, "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius"
> <adamantius1 at verizon.net> wrote:
>
>>
>> On May 19, 2007, at 11:24 AM, Arianwen ferch Arthur wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> OK--I'm confused  the only mention of Rice is that
>>> later someone substituted barley for the rice???
>>
>> Maybe rice for the barley?
>
> It is made of rice today, so that latter would be the case.

I'm not surprised. I get the impression that today, the primary  
immutable for orzata and orgeat (I've not dealt with the Spanish  
versions) is an almond flavoring. Which is why I felt it a little odd  
that at some point, the focus seems to have shifted from barley to  
almonds.

>
>
>>
>>> "Someone asked about horchata being barley water or
>>> something like that. The word horchata (orgeat in
>>> English), comes from the Latin: hordeata (made with
>>> barley) fr. hordeum (barley). Yes originally is was
>>> cooling drink made with barley. Later nuts of various
>>> types were used. It was a common drink among
>>> Hispano-Arabs, especially in Cordova by the 10th C at
>>> least. In 15th C. Castile, it was made from orange
>>> flower water and barley, almonds or other nuts. Later,
>>> Valencias substituted barley for rice. It was not
>>> until the late 17th C that the earthnut was used to
>>> make the orgeat that known there today."
>>
>> What I'm wondering is whether the earthnut referred to above is the
>> modern groundnut, or what Americans call peanuts...
>>
>> Adamantius
>
> I thought modern orgeat was almond flavored.  The bottle in my kitchen
> certainly is.  OH dear, I would be so easy to poison, I do so love the
> flavor of almond as well as marzipan, amaretto, etc.

I thought so, too, but this isn't something I've made much of a study  
of. I'm just trying to understand what was said above. Maybe it's  
made with peanuts and a tiny bit of bitter almond flavor? And maybe  
that's just one regional variant? Or not. Again, this isn't my field...

Adamantius