Barley - Pearled or Hulled?

[rbhollabaugh]

I was looking to buy a 25lb bag of barley for cooking but came across both pearled and hulled types. Does anyone know the difference?

Thanks,
Rich

[Pat]

There is this THING called GOOGLE. It is a SEARCH ENGINE. IT will find info on just about anything and is dead simple to use. Guick too.

It provided lots of barley info. Here is a representative sample:

Hulled barley, the form of the grain in which the bran is left intact, is exceptionally nutritious. Because only the outer, inedible hull, and not the bran, is removed, hulled barley is rich in dietary fiber, iron, trace minerals and thiamin. Hulled barley is brown, and takes longer to cook than pearled barley.
To produce Pearled barley the barley grains are scoured six times during milling to completely remove their double outer hull and their bran layer. Unfortunately, as with white rice, this process also removes nutrients. The grain has less iron, manganese, phosphorus, and thiamin.
This milling does shorten the grain's cooking time considerably. And pearled barley is still a highly nutritious and tasty food.

Or go here:
http://www.wholehealthmd.com/refshelf/foods_view/1,1523,70,00.html

A veritable cornucopia of Barley lore.

Wow, after reading about barley, I gotta get some. Great health food.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]