There must be a spelling rule that prohibits three letters in a row. At any rate, I can’t think of any such word, and logically it should be spelled hullless barley. But almost nobody spells it that way. Google finds 14,500 occurrences of “hulless barley,” 765 for "hull-less barley" (including Bob’s Red Mill) and only 42 for “hullless barley.” Reluctantly, I will follow the majority, because the rules of English spelling are descriptive and not prescriptive.

The only store that I know that sells hulless barley is the second largest retailer of natural and organic foods – Wild Oats. I have bought it at their flagship store in Superior, Colorado, near my home.

Once you get hulless barley home you, of course, need to cook it, and that can be a problem too. I still remember when I cooked my first hulless barley more than 10 years ago. I hated it.

But it was me that was the problem, not the hulless barley. Unless you cook it long enough and with enough water, it can be awfully chewy, and at that time I didn’t cook it correctly.

Nowadays, I always cook it in my rice cooker. Recipes for barley differ in the amount of water to use, but I follow the Joy of Cooking recommendation of four cups water to one cup barley to make it soft. Use less water if you want it firmer.

The best way to get started with hulless barley is to substitute it for about half of the rice that you might otherwise eat. Adding it to the bean stews like I have been eating lately is also simple and tasty.