BARLEY, THE NUTRITIOUS GRAIN.
BARLEY, THE NUTRITIOUS GRAIN.
Among the early Greeks and Romans,
barley was almost the only food of the common people and the soldiers. The
flour was made into gruel, after the following recipe: "Dry, near the fire
or in the oven, twenty pounds of barley flour, then patch it. Add three pounds
of linseed meal, half a pound of coriander seeds, two ounces of salt, and the
water necessary." If an especially delectable dish was desired, a little
millet was also added to give the paste more "cohesion and delicacy."
Barley was also used whole as a food, in which case it was first parched, which
is still the manner of preparing it in some parts of Palestine and many
districts of India, also in the Canary Islands, where it is known as gofio.
In the time of Charles I, barley meal
took the place of wheat almost entirely as the food of the common people in
England. In some parts of Europe, India, and other Eastern countries, it is
still largely consumed as the ordinary farinaceous food of the peasantry and
soldiers. The early settlers of New England also largely used it for bread
making.
Barley is less nutritious than wheat,
and to many people is less agreeable in flavor. It is likewise somewhat
inferior in point of digestibility. It's starch cells being less soluble, they
offer more resistance to the gastric juice.
There are several distinct species of
barley, but that most commonly cultivated is designated as two-rowed, or
two-eared barley. In general structure, the barley grain resembles wheat and
oats.
Simply deprived of its outer husk,
the grain is termed Scotch milled or pot barley . Subjected still further to the process by which the fibrous outer coat
of the grain is removed, it constitutes what is known as pearl barley. Pearl barley ground into flour
is known as patent barley. Barley
flour, owing to the fact that it contains so small a proportion of gluten,
needs to be mixed with wheaten flour for bread-making purposes. When added in
small quantity to whole-wheat bread, it has a tendency to keep the loaf moist and is thought by some to improve the flavor.
The most general use made of this
cereal as a food is in the form of pearl, or Scotch, barley. When well boiled,
barely requires about two hours for digestion.
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