Barley!

Hulled, pearled, quick? So confusing... but I can explain!

First a little education on the barley parts. Whole barley grain, from the outside in, is the husk (the protective inedible layer), the endosperm (bran and fibers, it is an interior layer that holds carbs, protein, and vitamins), and finally the germ (the core). https://savaskitchen.com/hulled-vs-pearl-barely-whats-the-difference/  

The husk or hull of the barley is inedible. It's got to come off before cooking barley. The below photo is of barley in the field. It has a husk, while still on the stalk.
 
 
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barley
Barley with and without the husk or hull. Sharp ends vs softer rounded ends.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Once the hull or husk is OFF, the barley is called hulled barley. It's also called dehulled barley. This is a minimally processed whole grain. This is the type of barley the Scandinavian people of the Viking Age would have eaten.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
There's a variety of barley is called hulless or naked barley. Apparently, the husk falls off during harvesting. This isn't actually a new thing. The hulless variety is also ancient.
 
Pearled barley has been processed. Some or all of the bran has been removed. It's more white in color than hulled barley. The below photos show barley with some or all the bran removed. As more bran is removed the barley becomes more pale or pearly white.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The quick stuff, is pearled AND mushed and steamed and dried to make it quicker to cook. Sounds like a whole bunch of processing, which makes it less "good for you", aside from removal of part of the whole grain.
 
 
Barley is one of the OLDEST domesticated grains, with archaeological evidence of use from the neolithic people in Fennoscandia (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland) in 4000 BCE! Modernly, they are trying to figure the travel path of it, analyzing archaeological remains.
 
 I was told in a personal conversation with the Admin from ABTF-Above the Fire, Cooking for reenactors
that soaking the barley helps speed the cooking.  https://savaskitchen.com/how-to-cook-different-types-of-barley/ confirms that the soaking overnight speeds up the cooking. So, I will need to test that, though I don't actually doubt it.
 
So there's lots of varieties of barley. I'll be using a North American variety, due to availability. At least I was able to obtain hulled barley, since the grocery doesn't carry that. Just the quick stuff.
 
If you want to get really technical about variations of barley, read the paper, linked below. One group of barley population of landraces, variants, predominates the northern European and and western Asian barley, Population 7. It's possible they are different only because of geographical separation after a time. (Meaning the Viking Age Scandinavian diaspora could have brought the barley.) The Scandinavian group of barley is "largely six-row, entirely hulled and predominantly spring growth habit, but they contain a mixture of daylength responsive and nonresponsive forms."
Wild barley has a two-rowed ear, while cultivated barley developed into six-rowed. Wild barley has a winter growth habit, needing exposure to a prolonged period of cold - in order to promote subsequent flowering. A spring growth habit occurs when plants complete their growth during a single season.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barley
 
There's a lot more in this paper but it's late and I need to get some barley soaking... 

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