Quick Overview
hodmedod's fermented wholegrain naked barley is made with british grown grains and uses cultures of lactobacillus delbrueckii, aspergillus soja and zygosaccharomyces rouxii. it's made by cooking the barley then introducing the three culture. the grains are then allowed to ferment and age under carefully controlled conditions. during fermentation the cultures produce enzymes that get to work on the carbohydrates and proteins in the barley producing a dark, sweet-smelling ferment with complex umami flavours and a malty aroma. long before we ate modern wheat in the uk, naked barley sustained us. well suited to our climate, bronze age farmers would be very familiar with this nutritious, malty cereal. unlike most barley, where the inedible husk is tightly stuck to the grain, the husks fall off the naked barley grain when it's harvested and threshed, leaving the tasty and nutritious wholegrain ready to use. it's resilience to variation in the weather - it does better in the wet and the dry than spring wheat - could make it an important uk crop again. delicious, nutritious, resilient. for these reasons hodmedod revived naked barley as an arable crop in the uk, searching seed banks across europe for suitable varieties. fermenting some as a wholegrain, intensifying the flavour and making it an essential condiment, seemed an excellent way of introducing it to a wider audience. perfect stirred through risotto, it also adds depth to salad dressings, salty intensity to pizza topping and complexity to soups, stews and stir-fries. it's a fantastic ingredient for home baking too, folded into dough for an umami hit in home made loaves.the naked barley ferment is unpasteurised and, though the salt and ph levels ensure that fermentation has almost completely ceased, it is still alive. we recommend that it should be stored in the fridge after opening. occasionally a white bloom will develop on the paste, this is harmless.
This product is Vegan.
 
Ingredients:
barley, water, wheat flour, salt, cultures