Currently, despite being the most cultivated cereal in Spain by extension and constituting a small nutritional jewel, it is hardly used for human consumption. The time has come for claim all its virtues.
There is no agreement on when and where barley began to be domesticated and consumed. Remains of grains are known from about 23,000 years ago near the Sea of Galilee (Israel), as well as archaeological sites from the late Paleolithic (about 18,000 years ago) in southern Egypt that confirm its existence in that period.
In fact, it is known that barley was closely linked to the religious rites and celebrations of ancient Egypt, where it was used as offering to the gods and at funerals.
Its germinated grain symbolized the resurrection of the god Osiris. Herodotus already described the importance of barley beer in ancient Egypt.
On one of his visits there, Pliny the Elder witnessed the use of barley in medical treatments and he took that knowledge to Greece. Hippocrates noticed the Egyptians’ consumption of barley water, and noted that it gave them strength and well-being.
Ethiopia is another of the birthplaces of barley, with a long history of cultivation and use, where related agricultural practices have been discovered as early as 3,000 BC. C. Ethiopia is known for being the origin of a good number of indigenous varieties.
It is believed that barley arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around the fourth or fifth millennium BC. C., and about a thousand years later it expanded throughout central and northern Europe, cold lands where barley grew in poor fields where other cereals did not achieve good production.
Rafael Rubio, archaeologist who works in the Iberian site of La Bastida de les Alcusses, Valencia, comments on how the diet of the inhabitants of that area in the 4th century BC. C. was already based on the consumption of barley: «the remains of cereal from the Iberian sites in this area are often barley, because the settlements were usually located in high areas, for defensive reasons, and they were often arid and infertile soils where barley can grow well, but wheat cannot.»
In the heart of Asia, the tibetan diet It has been based for millennia on two foods: tsampa and yak butter tea. Tsampa is made with toasted barley flour (similar to Canarian gofio), which is mixed with the aforementioned tea to make a paste of great nutritional value.
Properties of barley
It is a food with many more nutritional and gastronomic possibilities than those that make it appear as the basic ingredient of beer.
It is a good source of energy, especially slowly assimilated carbohydrates, and is remineralizing due to its content in potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron and phosphorus.
But its greatest treasure is its trace elements, among which stands out antioxidant selenium, zinc, manganese and copper, that make it an ideal food in deficiency states.
In addition, barley is rich in several vitamins of group B (B1, B3 and B6).
Although it does not have as much protein as wheat, its contribution is not negligible (almost 10%). Its soluble fiber, rich in beta-glucans, It is associated with the prevention of cardiovascular diseases.
Benefits of barley
In the last twenty years, research has multiplied aimed at confirming the best of barley in terms of cholesterol control and cardiovascular protection.
Among the three large food groups that provide the most fiber to the diet (vegetables, fruits and cereals), the fiber in some cereals is the one that has been most strongly associated with the prevention of cardiovascular diseases.
CSIC researcher Luis Cistué and his department investigate the varieties that can provide the greatest amount of beta-glucans – an important part of the soluble fiber of barley – as well as those that can grow in the most diverse conditions and be profitable.
Interestingly, beta-glucans are avoided by the brewing industry because they create cloudy beers and can also block breweries’ filter equipment.
On the other hand, beta-glucans are present in both whole grains and what is known as pearl barley», which is the one from which the husk has been removed and whitened until obtaining something similar to white rice, with the difference that in the case of pearled barley hardly any fiber is lost (it still contains 15.6% compared to 17.3% of the whole grain) and retains a good part of its nutrients.
Barley in the kitchen
Barley has a great culinary tradition in many cultures. Incorporating it into your daily diet is simple.
On the one hand, you can replace part (or all) of the rice in a recipe with whole or pearl barley grains. As a general rule, pearl barley no soaking required and cooks in 30-40 minutes.
The grain barley is soaked overnight and cooked for 40-50 minutes.
In central and eastern Europe, one of the classic dishes is kashasemolina of this cereal cooked in milk (in its sweet version) or with oil and seasoned with pepper or caraway, in its salty version.
Barley flour and semolina can be easily added to purees, porridges or to replace flours from other cereals, such as wheat.
Of course, barley is ideal for making an infinite range of flatbreads, where this cereal gives its best (its low gluten content makes loaves with barley flour somewhat dense, similar to rye flour).
The range of varieties
There are many ways to classify barley, but if we do it according to its use, broadly speaking we can distinguish between malting barley, in which a low amount of protein is of interest; the one I think, in which the opposite is interesting, a complete food for livestock; and that of consumption as food for humans, in which its components (fibers, minerals, starches) present all the nutritional advantages that the grain is capable of providing.