On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 879

right,andaredescribedindetailinthenext
chapter.
SeedsConcentrateCookingLiquidsBecause
grains and beans are dry and soak up water,
they remove water from the liquid they’re
cooked in, and therefore effectively
concentrate other materials in the liquid. In
this way they create a sauce for themselves.
When rice or polenta is cooked in milk, for
example, the liquid between the grains
becomes richer in both milk proteins and fat
globules, and so more like cream. When
grains are cooked in a meat stock, the stock
become more concentrated in gelatin, and so
comes to resemble a reduced stock or
demiglace.
TheGrains,orCereals

Oftheapproximately8,000speciesinthe
grassfamily,onlyahandfulplayasignificant


roleinthehumandiet.Asidefrombamboo
andsugarcane,thesearethecereals.While
theirgrainsareverysimilarinstructureand
composition,thedifferenceshavemadefor
widelydivergentculinaryhistories.
ThemajorEurasiancereals—wheat,
barley,rye,andoats—originallygrewwild
inextensivestandsonthetemperatehigh
plainsoftheNearEast.Groupsofearly

humanscouldharvestenoughwheatand
barleyfromthesewildfieldsinafewweeks
tosustainthemselvesforayear.Some12,000
to14,000yearsago,thefirstagriculturalists
begantoplantandtendwheatandbarley
seedsselectedfortheirsizeandtheeasewith
whichtheycouldbeharvestedandused;and
farmersgraduallyspreadthesecrops
throughoutwesternandcentralAsia,Europe,
andnorthAfrica.Eachcerealhadits
advantages.Barleywasespeciallyhardy,
whileryeandoatswereabletoadapttowet,
coldclimates,andwheatproducedauniquely