and purple-grained barleys, some of which are
made into drinks. Water simmered with raw
or roasted barley has been enjoyed for two
thousand years or more, from western Europe
to Japan.
The barley grain is notable for containing
significant quantities — about 5% each of the
grain weight — of two carbohydrates other
than starch: the pentosans that give rye flours
their stickiness, and the glucans that give oats
their gelatinous and cholesterol-lowering
qualities (pp. 470, 471). Both are found in the
walls of endosperm cells as well as in the
bran, and together with barley’s water-
insoluble proteins they contribute to the
distinctively springy texture of the cooked
grain. They also cause barley flour to absorb
twice the water that wheat flour does.
Pearled Barley There are hull-less barleys,
but most food varieties have adherent hulls
that are removed as part of the milling