I bought bag of barley. How can I tell whether its hulled or pearled?
Oh, the corny puns I could come up with. But I won’t: Suffice it to say that this is Corn Week at @WaPoFood — a fount of stories, videos, recipes, photos, factoids, a quiz and more about America’s favorite grain.
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For example: Jim Shahin reveals the secret behind grilling corn; Roberto Ferdman tells us how corn happened to end up in almost every food Americans eat; Tim Carman turns to local chef and TV cooking show host Pati Jinich to learn the right way to make corn tortillas; Tamar Haspel explains why corn should be celebrated, not vilified. And there's more.
Got corn questions? You're sure to find answers during today's Free Range chat, when our special guests will be Pati and Tamar. It starts at noon and lasts for just one hour, so submit your queries or comments early. As always, leftover questions become my property. Here's one that we didn't have time to answer during last week's chat:
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I bought bulk barley in a bag, and it looks different from the kind I usually buy, in a box. I’m guessing one is pearled and the other is hulled, but I don’t know which is which. How do I know, how do I cook them, and can I use them the same way regardless of the pearled/hulled situation?
Chewy, nutlike, nutritious barley is most often sold in pearled form, which is probably what’s in those boxes you’ve been buying. Your bulk barley, I’ll bet, is the hulled kind. We’ll start with that.
Hulled barley, considered a whole grain, has had just the indigestible outer husk removed. It’s darker in color and has a little bit of a sheen. Pearled barley, also called pearl barley, is not a whole grain and isn’t as nutritious. It has lost its outer husk and its bran layer, and it has been polished. It has a lighter, more matte appearance. You can see the difference clearly in the photo above. (The hulled barley is at left.)
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Both usually are prepared by boiling on the stove top. Hulled barley takes an hour or longer to cook, whereas the pearled kind cooks in about 45 minutes. You can mostly use them interchangeably, but you need to pay attention to the other ingredients in your recipe to make sure they aren’t under- or overcooked if you have changed the type of barley.
Most recipes that call for barley specify the pearled kind. I know that's true, but still I was surprised when I searched our own Recipe Finder for barley recipes. Of the more than 30, exactly one — Hulled Barley With Carrots, Raisins and Walnuts — calls for the hulled kind that you bought.
Still, as I said before, most of the time you can substitute one kind for the other. So in that spirit, below is a sampling of barley recipes that will still welcome your bulk-bag purchase.
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Because of its hearty flavor and texture, barley seems more suited to cold-weather dishes than to warm-weather ones, so for some of these, you might want to wait until fall. And you can: Store your hulled barley in an airtight container, preferably in the refrigerator, and it should be fine for at least six months.
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