Just Barley - 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!

A sheaf of Hordeum vulgare – cultivated barley – stands in a vase on Alton’s counter. Alton explains that people from Egypt to Greece, Japan to Britain, and India to Italy ate the grain. In modern times there are two basic types; Alton enlists his brother BA to help him explain. BA is “hull-less” barley. He has a hull but it falls right off (BA sheds his coat to demonstration). Alton represents hulled barley. His hull doesn’t come off readily; a process called “pearling” removes it. BA retrieves a belt sander to demonstrate. By the time he’s finished Alton’s coat is mostly missing and what’s left is a mess. As he is now, Alton represents “whole hulled.” “dehulled,” or “scotch” barley. Then there’s “pearled” barley. To make it the manufacturer continues the pearling process, here represented by BA and his sander, to remove even more of the outer parts of the grain. By the time BA is done Alton stands in underwear and tattered remnants of his outer coats. Even this form of barley has nutritional value for fiber and nutrients are found throughout the seed. Finally, there is rolled barley. BA reappears with a lawn roller but Alton draws the line at that demonstration.

The easiest way to make barley is to bake it. Alton puts barley, salt and butter into boiling water, then stirs it and covers it tightly with foil and then the lid to form a good seal. He parks that in the oven for an hour. Just out of the oven the starch has not set. Proper fluffing now prevents a brick hard meal later. Alton uses chopsticks (but notes that a fork will do) and fluffs the barley to separate and aerate each grain. This, he says, can be served as is or cooled and stashed in the chill chest for as long as a week. Or, one might inject some flavor as Alton does: he mixes extra virgin olive oil and a little orange juice to the barley, then adds a little fennel, pine nuts, parmesan cheese, cooked and crumbled bacon, chopped parsley, kosher salt and ground black pepper to make a barley salad.

Alton visits a water powered mill to learn about grinding grain. There he sees how enormous grooved stone wheels accept grain at their hubs and yield flour at their edges. The same principle has been reduced in size for home use, in both crank and motor driven varieties. Alton selects a German made machine for his future grinds.

Back in the kitchen Alton prepares lamb shoulder by cubing it. Then he adds kosher salt and black pepper and just enough flour to coat it, tossing gently. He heats a Dutch oven over medium and adds olive oil. Alton uses plain old cheap oil. The rich flavor of the extra virgin sort won’t add anything here. Once oil and pan heat, a process that can take several minutes, Alton adds the meat gently and without crowding it, because... well... it’s the snowball effect.

Pulling out a chart, Alton shows how little snowballs become great avalanches (or not so great avalanches if it happens to be you in their path). So it is with certain cooking steps, and browning the lamb is one of them. Tiny mistakes get worse and will ruin the stew. This flavor cannot be reproduced or substituted so work carefully here to get good results.

When the lamb is browned Alton removes it and adds carrots and salt, returning the lamb to the pan when the carrots have sautéed for a few minutes. Then he adds barley grits – coarsely ground barley – and stock, stewing for about forty five minutes. When the liquid is gone and the lamp all but falls apart the stew is ready. Alton adds some oregano to the top and it’s ready to serve.

Hearth breads go back a long ways and some of the earliest were made with barley. Alton grinds his own flour to make barley bread. The barley flour goes into a bowl with some baking powder and a little kosher salt and all that gets whisked together. In another bowl Alton mixes two eggs with some honey to make an emulsion. Then he adds some canola oil and some milk. Because this is a quick bread (no yeast) the dry team goes on top of the wet team. There’s little gluten in barley so stir the batter all you want. Hearth breads were originally cooked in pots hung over hot coals. Most people haven’t got this sort of arrangement at home so Alton demonstrates how to cook over a gas grill by cooking his that way. An oven will work but because modern ovens cycle on and off, and this bread benefits from continuous heat, the oven won’t provide quite the same results. After 35-40 minutes alton slides the bread out and cools it on a rack.

“Doctor” Brown advises Mr. Anderson about the benefits of barley water. He instructs the patient how to prepare this healthy drink that has been used for its beneficial effects for centuries. Demonstrating, the “doctor” tells his patient to put hulled barley in water and bring the water to a boil, then back the temperature down and let that simmer for a half hour. He adds some lemon zest, and squeezes the lemons into a pitcher with some honey. Then he strains the barley into the pitcher. The juice is packed with nutrition and... a nurse appears. Thinking quickly, “Doctor” Brown orders a number of tests real and bogus and the nurse leaves presumably to fill the order. The “doctor” continues, telling the patient that barley water contains B vitamins, antioxidants, acts as a diuretic and aids digestion. Some even say it cures a runny nose. With the zest in there it will only get better over time.

About then security returns and collars the “doctor.” Evidently the nurse wasn’t fooled. Security drags Alton away but he manages to remind viewers to make a little pantry space for an ancient grain whose time has come again. Barley is the Swiss Army Knife of the cereal world and definitely... Good Eats!

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