Barley is stated by historians to the oldest of all grains cultivated. Seems to have been the principal bread plant among the ancient Hebrews, Greeks and Romans. The Jews especially held the grain in high esteem, and sacred history usually uses it interchangeably with wheat, when talking about the fruits of the earth.
Among the Greeks and Romans, barley was almost the only food of the common people and the soldiers. flour was made into gruel, after the following recipe:. "Dry, near the fire or in the oven, twenty pounds of barley flour, then layur three pounds of linseed meal, half a pound of coriander seeds, two ounces of salt and water needed." As the dishes are very tasty it was desirable, millet bit too was added to give the paste more "cohesion and delicacy." Barley was also used whole as a food, in the case before it dried first, which is preparing the way in some parts of Palestine, and many parts of India, including the Canary Islands, where it was known as Gofio.
At the time of Charles I, barley meal took the place of wheat almost entirely as the food of ordinary people in the UK. In some parts of Europe, India and the countries of Eastern Europe, is still largely consumed as food as regular flour from farmers and soldiers. The first settlers of New England also largely used to make bread.
Barley is less nutritious than wheat, and a lot less pleasant taste. It is also rather low in terms of digestibility. Cells less soluble starch, they offer more resistant to stomach acid.
There are several types of barley, but the most widely grown designated as two-rowed, or two ears of barley. In general structure, resembling grain barley and oats.
Quite deprived of the outer shell, wheat is ground called Scotch or pot barley. further through the process by which fibrous outer layer of the grain is removed, is called the pearl barley. Pearl barley ground into flour is known as patent barley. barley flour, due to the fact that it contains a very small proportion of gluten, must be mixed with wheat flour for bread-making purposes. When added in small quantities of wheat bread, it has a tendency to bread moist and is considered by some to enhance the flavor.
The most common use of cereals as food, in the form of beads or Scotch, barley. When cooked, barley requires about two hours for digestion.
