Parched grain is grain that has been cooked by dry roasting. It is an ancient foodstuff and is thought to be one of the earliest ways in which the hunter gatherers in the

Fertile Crescent The Fertile Crescent ( ar, الهلال الخصيب) is a crescent-shaped region in the Middle East, spanning modern-day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine and Jordan, together with the northern region of Kuwait, southeastern region of ...

ate grains. Historically, it was a common food in the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

, as attested by the following

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

quotes: *"On the day after the

Passover Passover, also called Pesach (; ), is a major Jewish holiday that celebrates the Biblical story of the Israelites escape from slavery in Egypt, which occurs on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, the first month of Aviv, or spring. ...

, on that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes, and parched grain." *"Now

Boaz Boaz (; Hebrew: בֹּעַז ''Bōʿaz''; ) is a biblical figure appearing in the Book of Ruth in the Hebrew Bible and in the genealogies of Jesus in the New Testament and also the name of a pillar in the portico of the historic Temple in J ...

said to her at mealtime, 'Come here, and eat of the bread, and dip your piece of bread in the

vinegar Vinegar is an aqueous solution of acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains 5–8% acetic acid by volume. Usually, the acetic acid is produced by a double fermentation, converting simple sugars to eth ...

.'" So she sat beside the

reaper A reaper is a farm implement or person that reaps (cuts and often also gathers) crops at harvest when they are ripe. Usually the crop involved is a cereal grass. The first documented reaping machines were Gallic reapers that were used in Roma ...

s, and he passed parched grain to her; and she ate and was satisfied, and kept some back." It is known in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

as קָלִי (''qālî''). The grain has the same length of the normal grain, although somewhat thinner and darker with a green shade. It is served as a casserole hot dish, cooked with morsels of meat or

poultry Poultry () are domesticated birds kept by humans for their eggs, their meat or their feathers. These birds are most typically members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes (which includes chickens, quails, ...

Use as a Camp Ration

A variety of parched grains have been used historically as a camp ration, both for military troops on maneuvers and civilian travelers on extended overland journeys. Because parching both cooked the grains, and removed most of the water content, it was useful as a way to have pre-cooked meals which could be stored or carried for extended periods, and weighed the same or slightly less than the uncooked grains. It also had the advantage that it could be eaten without re-heating it, either dry or by soaking in water, and so would both reduce cooking time in the field and allow troops to travel without any campfires at all if needed. In particular, parched rice was widely used in South and East Asia for troops well into the 20th century, including by the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

during the Sino-Japanese Wars and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. It was a primary staple of the People's Liberation Army of China during the

Long March The Long March (, lit. ''Long Expedition'') was a military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the National Army of the Chinese ...

, as well, being one of the few items they were able to carry a significant supply of while on the move. During the

U.S. Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states t ...

, parched

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...

was used both as a grain itself and as a way to carry maize for grinding into cornmeal.

References

Grains Hebrew Bible words and phrases {{ingredient-stub

Use as a Camp Ration

See also

References