this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2026
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[–] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 112 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (6 children)

Boiled wheat is perfectly edible, actually. Tasty? Not really, but I didn't grow up on it and we're extremely spoilt compared to prehistoric peoples. Stuff like boiled barley kernels (AFAIK you can't really make bread with barley) was still a relatively common dish 1-200 hundred years ago in my parts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groat_(grain)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_barley

[–] thebestaquaman@lemmy.world 43 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Significant point: "Edible" is subject to discussion. Not more than 100 years ago, the expected diet in large parts of Norway was boiled fish, boiled potatoes, and some form of boiled grain. For every meal. Your entire life. Vitamins? Go chew on that shrub until the scurvy goes away.

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

boiled fish, boiled potatoes, and some form of boiled grain

tbf that sounds amazing

[–] sukhmel@programming.dev 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Nobody stops you from trying it you can afford it, I hope you can it's pretty sad otherwise

i eat it almost every day, that's why i can say with confidence that it sounds amazing, because it is :P

[–] GorGor@startrek.website 24 points 1 week ago

Beef barley soup is delicious

[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 week ago (2 children)

You can absolutely make barley bread. It just won't be very fluffy or rise, since there's no gluten in it.

[–] SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There most certainly is gluten in barley! Breweries don't just add gluten to beer just to be dicks to people with celiac disease.

Tbf, most grains have way more gluten in them than they used to, though wheat is by far the worst offender. This is because they've been bred for industrial purposes. If you have a grain with a lot of gluten it'll rise more, so you can use less wheat (aka reduce cost) while keeping the size of the loaf the same

[–] rumschlumpel@feddit.org -3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

That ... doesn't sound like bread to me.

[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

That's because its 2026, and not 1326. It would have definitely qualified as bread in the middle ages, and probably way before.

[–] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

American-pilled.

If you look at a lot of other breads outside of the US, particularly German breads, they tend to be a lot more crumbly.

The high gluten breads you're used to came about from industrial bread makers wanting their bread to rise more so they could use less grain per loaf while keeping the size the same

[–] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I'm German myself. All bread I've ever seen in Germany is leavened.

[–] MurrayL@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I’ve got a pack of pearl barley in the cupboard right now; it’s delicious.

[–] Hellstormy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 week ago

Same, I also regularly make meals with pearl barley, it's absolutely great as a noodles/rice replacement or salad ingredient

[–] Dojan@pawb.social 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

It being tasty or not is entirely subjective. I'm a big fan of boiled wheat. The texture is fantastic.

[–] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Is this a dish that your parents made for you when you were a child?

[–] Dojan@pawb.social 3 points 1 week ago

Nope. Think we had wheat on occasion but I don't recall feeling strongly about it. It's something I've started doing more in recent years and I was a fan from the start. You can prepare it in various ways, like cooking it in a broth makes it absorb the flavours. Or you could just boil it with salt like you'd boil pasta, in which case it's not that different in terms of flavour.

It's so substantial, even chewy. I love oat groats for this too.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Called porridge.