no outdoor cooking today! test cook 3...

With the thunderstorms, off and on today, I am surprised that my fire pit isnt full of water!
It looks dry actually.  We have flash flooding warnings all around us and when we to town it was pouring! Before we left it had rained quite a bit... so Ken didn't get my firewood cut. Tomorrow is another day!

50 g barley, rinsed well. 150 g water.
Brought to a boil, about 5 minutes at a medium heat, and temperature lowered to a slow simmer. Will check at 30 minutes. 
At 30 minutes,  it mashed to a "flake". It was still underdone by mouth feel.
At 45 minutes, it smashed quite well, but under done by mouth-feel.
At that point, the water was almost all absorbed,  so I added another 50 ml.
At 60 minutes, it smashed to mush, but still not done by mouth-feel.
I've turned up the temperature a bit.

Thinking about the logistics of a traveling meal, it would be difficult to pre-soak the barley. How does one carry wet barley?! It makes sense to grind the barley to help it cook more quickly. Large amounts of firewood can't be carried, so must be found. A meal, quickly cooked, would use less fuel! I think, I've approached this wrong. 

It's 75 minutes. All the water has absorbed and it stuck to the pan.
It smashed well before. This time was even finer.
I won't bother showing that anymore. By mouth-feel I would call it done as a side dish, not really porridge though. This, of course, is subjective.
I added 100 ml more water and we'll see what happens in 15 minutes.
At 90 minutes, it looks like porridge! 
By mouth-feel I can still detect grains.

So, now I have to re-think this experiment!

This should have been posted 14 July 2025.

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