How to Cook Barley: Make Perfectly Fluffy Barley at Home

Barley (Hordeum vulgare) is a true cereal grain from the same family as wheat (Poaceae) and the fourth most produced grain worldwide. (Wheat is number one, then rice, and then corn.) As a plant, barley has the widest range of suitable growing range of any cereal: it’s grown in desert-like conditions in North Africa, and in cold, wet areas of western Europe and North America, but the biggest producers worldwide are Russia, Germany, France, and the Ukraine.

The kind of barely we’re most used to seeing at the grocery store is pearled barley. Like white rice, pearled barley has been processed to remove its nutritious outer bran layer and inner germ layers, leaving behind just the carb-rich and tender endosperm. Barley is also available as a whole grain: Look for the words whole, hulless, hulled, or Scotch for the most nutrition. Less common is pot barley, which has had 7–15% of the whole grain removed, leaving behind some germ and bran.

Barley is possibly the oldest cultivated cereal grain, dating back to 8,000 BCE Syria where it was first gathered then later domesticated. Wild barley (previously known as Hordeum spontaneum, now classed with cultivated barley) has also has origins in North Africa and in western to south-central Asia; it also predates the cultivation of rice in the Indus valley.

Barley was an important staple grain in the Mediterranean until the last centuries BCE, when leavened bread, best made with high-gluten wheat, became more popular. Meanwhile, Egypt continued to rely on barley, alongside more expensive wheat. Barley bread was used for trenchers in Europe and continued to be the most-produced type of bread there until the sixteenth century. In addition to bread, Europeans incorporated barley in soups, stews, porridge, and alcohol. In China, barley was especially important in areas not well suited to growing rice. It was steamed, made into cakes, or used as a sweetener, later becoming the main sweetener of Japan.

Although barley has a history as a staple food in many parts of the world, it’s now been upstaged by other grains almost everywhere besides Tibet, where Tibetans consume more barley than anywhere else in the world.

Barley differs not only in level of processing after harvest, but in the characteristics of the plant itself. Different barley varieties are additionally categorized by the number of “rows” of ears.

• Hulless: Hulless barley varieties (aka “naked” barley), such those found in Tibet, feature grains that are so loosely attached to their inedible hulls that hull simply falls off during harvesting. That means that hulless barley can be sold as a whole grain without any sort of processing.
• Covered: More common than the hulless variety are “covered” barleys, which must have the hull removed during processing.
• Two-eared: The first cultivated barley was two-rowed barley (high in sugar).
• Beremeal: Beremeal is a type of four-row barley grown in Scotland and made into a flatbread called bannock (and beer).
• Six-eared: The most important barley in Medieval Europe was six-rowed barley (high in protein).

While all barley contains less protein (and less gluten) than wheat, barley itself is not gluten-free.

Barley flour can absorb twice the amount of water as wheat, and when used in leavened breads gives them a dense texture. Breads made from barley also become stale quickly because they don’t have gluten structure to hold in moisture. Pearled barley will leech starch into its cooking liquid, thickening soups and making creamy risotto.

Barley is a good source of carbohydrates, including starch; pentosans, the same sugars that make rye sticky; and glucans, known for making oats gelatinous. Whole-grain barley is also a good source of dietary fiber since it has high fiber content, some protein, calcium, phosphorus, and B vitamins. Compared to soft, mild pearled barley, whole barley has a nutty flavor and chewy texture, similar to wheatberries, quinoa, or brown rice.

While high in carbohydrates, barley is low in gluten, so it’s commonly used to make flatbreads and porridge. Most of today’s barley harvest is grown for animal feed and to make malt for beer, but there are still important culinary uses for barley, such as the following barley recipes:

1. 1. Tsampa. The staple food of Tibet, tsampa is a porridge made from toasted barley flour, mixed with salted butter tea.
2. 2. Barley water. Barley water is made from water leftover from boiling barley, sweetened and sometimes flavored with orange or lemon.
3. 3. Barley flour. Barley flour can be used for baking, usually in combination with wheat flour, for pancakes and scones.
4. 4. Barley grits. Husked barley grains that are toasted and cracked make a good breakfast porridge, or they can be cooked like corn grits.
5. 5. Barley paste. Barley can be used to make Japanese miso paste, instead of rice.
6. 6. Barley pilaf. A heartier version of the classic rice dish, barley pilaf is high in fiber content. Chicken broth and olive oil round out the savory meal which can be served as a side dish or as the base of a grain salad.
7. 7. Beer. Barley has been used to brew beer since the third millenium BCE, in Egypt, Babyon, and Sumeria. (At least a third of ancient Mesopotamia’s barley crop was reserved for making beer.) Barley is the preferred grain for making beer because it generates a lot of starch-digesting enzymes, forming fermentable sugars that then become alcohol. In beer-making, the germination of barley grains is called malting.

Whole-grain barley takes longer to cook than pearl barley and is best pre-soaked for a few hours to cut down on cook time. Both varieties can be cooked a few different ways, including in a slow cooker or pot on the stovetop:

• Stovetop absorption method: Rinse barley in a fine-mesh sieve under cold running water. Combine one cup barley with three cups water and a pinch of salt in a medium saucepan. (Alternatively, use chicken stock or vegan broth.) Bring to a boil over high heat and lower to a simmer. Cook until barley is tender yet chewy, about 25–30 minutes for pearl barley, 40–50 for hulled barley. Add a little more water if the pan dries out. Drain barley if needed, and fluff with a fork.
• Stovetop pasta method: In a large stockpot, bring water to boil with a pinch of salt. Add barley and cook until tender yet chewy, about 25–30 minutes for pearl barley, 40–45 for hulled barley. Drain in a fine mesh strainer and fluff with a fork.

Cook barley on the brown rice setting with the amount of water indicated for brown rice.

Store barley in a cool, dry, dark place, such as a cupboard, refrigerator, or freezer. Store cooked barley in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week, or in the freezer for up to 2 months.

The shelf life of barley depends on how it’s been processed: Pearl barley and parboiled barley last the longest. Like other whole grains, hulled barley will spoil faster, since the germ contains oil that can go rancid.

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