Barley Boiled
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the pearl barley in cold water.
Combine the barley, cold water, and salt in a small saucepan with a steam pipe in the cover.
Cook
Place this saucepan into another saucepan filled with boiling water.
Boil for 2 hours, ensuring the water remains boiling until the barley is cooked.
Serve
Serve with sugar, cream, or milk.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Pearl barley
- Its starch swells and softens during long simmering, giving the grains a tender, chewy texture.
The step that matters
Keep the outer water boiling for the full cook. Barley starch only swells and softens with sustained heat. If the water stops boiling, the grains stay firm and the cooking time is effectively lost.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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