test cook 1 - soaked barley

I wanted to test cook barley so I had a clue, since I've only ever tossed some quick barley in soup before. Which, by the way, eventually disintegrated into the soup.
I soaked the barley overnight.
I used 1/4 cup and a bottle of water, so about 500 ml. I shall weigh the barley in the future.
Drained, rinsed 6 times.
Found all this crud while swirling to mix up the barley. Ew.

Testing firmness. I used a table knife and pressed firmly.
I can flatten soaked barley! 
I cannot crush barley that has not been soaked. I even pressed as hard as I could!
Size observation! 
The soaked barley observed is longer, wider and taller, than a control grain that hasn't been soaked. Soaked barley is definitely plumper.
Above is unsoaked grain.
Above is a soaked grain.Above is a unsoaked grain.
Above is a soaked grain.
Left, unsoaked. Right, soaked.

So I cooked the grain for about a half hour, after bringing the drained grain in 3/4 cup of water. 
At that point, I was able to smash the barley to paste!
It's done!
I tasted it.  Still has some body to it. It's the way I would eat it. I would imagine a porridge could get cooked more.
There's a very little bit of water left. The 1 part grain to 3 parts water, by volume, seems to be correct for soaked barley.
Here's a comparison of the unsoaked grain to the cooked.
It looks almost doubled in size! The soaked grain was modestly larger, but the cooked is definitely larger.
Well, since I started with 1/4 cup and now have about a cup, minus a few I was testing with, the barley quadrupled in size. Sorry, no clue why it's now sideways!
The color is gray-ish and somewhat unappealing, but I think that is going to be breakfast tomorrow morning...

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