Recipe Talk

Has anyone ever heard of a recipe for barley kernel bread? I have found several for barkley bread using barley flower, but not the kernels.

Barley's been feeding humans for millennia, though it fell out of favor during the last one as people came to see it as low-brow peasant fare. It's most often used in soups and stews, where it serves as both a puffy grain and a thickener, but it also makes a nice side dish or salad. At most markets, you'll have to choose between two types of barley. Hulled barley is the most nutritious, since only the tough outer hulls are polished off. Pearl barley is polished some more, so that the outer bran layer is also scrubbed off. It's less nutritious, but more popular since it's not as chewy as hulled barley and it cooks faster.

Varieties:

barley flakes = rolled barley = flaked barley Notes: To make this, barley kernels are sliced, then rolled flat into flakes. Like rolled oats, rolled barley is usually served as a hot cereal. It takes about 30 minutes to cook. Substitutes: rolled oats OR other rolled grains

barley grits Notes: These are barley kernels that have been toasted, and then cracked into smaller pieces in order to speed up the cooking time. They're a bit hard to find. Substitutes: buckwheat grits OR hominy grits

black barley = Ethiopian black barley Notes: This is similar to pearl barley, only it has a black exterior. Substitutes: pearl barley