On Food and Cooking

role in the human diet. Aside from bamboo
and sugar cane, these are the cereals. While
their grains are very similar in structure and
composition, the differences have made for
widely divergent culinary histories.
The major Eurasian cereals — wheat,
barley, rye, and oats — originally grew wild
in extensive stands on the temperate high
plains of the Near East. Groups of early
humans could harvest enough wheat and
barley from these wild fields in a few weeks
to sustain themselves for a year. Some 12,000
to 14,000 years ago, the first agriculturalists
began to plant and tend wheat and barley
seeds selected for their size and the ease with
which they could be harvested and used; and
farmers gradually spread these crops
throughout western and central Asia, Europe,
and north Africa. Each cereal had its
advantages. Barley was especially hardy,
while rye and oats were able to adapt to wet,
cold climates, and wheat produced a uniquely