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Good Eats: Just Barley
Take away the foods that have come into use over the last ten thousand years and few foods are left. One of them is barley, a staple of ancient diets and a grain whose time has come again. Alton discusses Baked Barley and how to make Barley Salad from it. Grinding the grain various ways he demonstrates Lamb and Barley Stew and Barley Bread. And finally, he demonstrations healthy Barley Water to a sick patient.
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Episode Info
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Episode number: 10x2 Production Number: EA1001 Airdate: Wednesday May 17th, 2006 Writer: Alton Brown
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Recap
Rain patters down the glass outside Alton’s kitchen as he contemplates an array of ingredients laid out on the floor. Picking his way through them, he comments that on such a dismal day he likes to take stock of his stores. Modern cooks have access to a wide variety of different foods, but if one traveled back in time to, say... ten thousand years ago, what foods might one encounter. Much of the clutter vanishes from Alton’s floor, leaving honey, dried berries, and barley. Cultivated before wheat, rye, buckwheat, millet and perhaps even rice, barley was a staple of those long departed days. Back then people roasted, boiled, toasted, ground, simmered and even malted it. Alton claims barley is more than a grain whose time has come again. It’s... Good Eats!..Read the full recap
Episode Notes
Cards
- Most of the barley raised in the United States is fed to livestock.
- Hull-less barley contains 2-3 times the protein of an equal portion of rice.
- Noise levels in decibels:
- Normal breathing = 10
- Rainfall = 50
- Average grain mill = 80
- Air raid siren = 130
- Normal breathing = 10
- Barley kernels, or ‘barleycorns’ were used as units of measurement as early as the 6th century.
The title is a play on the phrase "just barely" and refers as well to the initial scenes where Alton metaphorically travels backwards in time to a point where barley was one of the few foods available.
Episode Quotes
Alton: If we could just travel back in time, like Reese did in The Terminator (1984), except, you know, with clothes on.
Alton: Although the average American consumes plenty of barley in liquid form, few folks take advantage of its qualities as a culinary multi-tasker. But that, my food friends, is all about to change. Because in this kitchen, barley isn’t just a grain whose time has come again, it’s... (Good Eats theme plays)
Alton: If you really want to take full advantage of barley – and I know that you do – you will need some coarse cracked barley grits and some barley flour.
Alton: I say, why go with hand power when you can have this German jet engine mill. That’s right kids, I said jet engine. Here’s the grinder (Alton picks up part of the mill and disassembles it.) Air and grain are fed in at high speed, and this wheel full of teeth spins at a high speed inside of there and basically pulverizes everything. This guy can convert two thirds of a cup of barley into a cup of barley gits in about, I don’t know, sixty seconds.
Alton: The snowball effect clearly states that tiny little actions taken at the beginning of a process snowball, resulting in massive, cumulative effects in the final dish. Now, in the case of our current application, the snowball in question is the flavor created during the browning process, which cannot be replaced and cannot be substituted.
Alton: (Alton contemplates dry and wet teams in their separate bowls.) Now, the question is... how do we bring these two kids together? Well, I’ll give you a hint. Our bread is a quick bread, and is therefore brought together via the muffin method. What does that mean? Yeah! The wet stuff goes onto the dry stuff.
Alton: (Explaining why he’s cooking barley bread on the grill, and not in the oven.) Could you achieve this in, say, a 350º F oven for 25-30 minutes? Yeah, sort of, but the bread won’t be as good, because modern ovens cycle on and off, grills don’t, and this bread is best served by constant heat from below.
Alton: I’ll be back... and that bread better be there when I return!
Alton: Oh, nurse, excellent to see you. Mr. Anderson here needs a CBC and a Chem-5, ah, and also a PVC for his BLT on his duodenum, and… let’s go ahead and order a CAT scan, an MRI and a… puma scan on his epithelial, epiglottal mass. STAT!
Alton: I hope we’ve convinced you to make a little space in your kitchen and your stomach for an ancient grain whose time has come again. Barley really is the Swiss-army knife of the cereal world, and it deserves to be upgraded to full active pantry status. See you next time on Good Eats!
Cultural References
In 1984's The Terminator, James Cameron told what would become a wildly popular story about a mechanical assassin called a Terminator and the soldier named Reese whose job was to prevent it from completing its mission. These combatants traveled from the future to do battle in the past; the mechanics of the time travel device prevented them from bringing anything – including clothes.
Alton calls barley the “Swiss army knife” of the cereal world. This refers to its versatility; the original Swiss Army knife is famous for the versatile array of blades and tools it contains, all designed to fit inside the casing via clever hinging. Some models have dozens of accessories. Although many folks now make such knives, only Victorinox is legally permitted to call theirs “Swiss army knives.”
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