Hulled Barley

One US cup of hulled barley weighs 184 grams. Going the other way, 100 grams is about 0.54 cups.

Also called whole grain barley, whole barley, unpearled barley, dehulled barley, barley groats, hull-less barley, hulless barley.

TL;DR: **One US cup of hulled barley weighs 184 g** — USDA FoodData Central, Bob's Red Mill, and Whole Foods bulk all converge on this figure exactly. Density 0.7777 g/mL. Contrary to a common intuition, hulled barley is roughly 10-15% *lighter* per cup than pearl barley (200-216 g/cup), because the bran layer that's retained in hulled barley creates surface irregularities that keep kernels from packing as tightly as polished pearl.

Hulled barley is the whole grain of *Hordeum vulgare* with only the inedible outer hull mechanically removed. All three bran layers and the germ are retained, making it a true whole grain with the full fibre, mineral, and B-vitamin profile intact. Commercial barley comes in three progressively polished forms that occupy distinct positions in the ExactCups density ladder: **hulled barley** (this entry, 184 g/cup, whole grain, ~1 hour cook time), **pot barley** or Scotch barley (partially polished, bran mostly intact, an intermediate step less common in US markets), and **pearl barley** (fully polished, bran removed, 200-216 g/cup, 30-45 minute cook time). A fourth variant, **hull-less barley** (also spelled hulless), is a botanically different variety of *Hordeum vulgare* whose hull separates naturally during threshing rather than requiring mechanical dehulling. For all cooking and density purposes hull-less barley is functionally identical to traditional hulled barley — Bob's Red Mill markets their whole-grain barley under both labels, and the per-cup weight is the same 184 g.

The density convergence across sources is unusually clean. USDA FDC 170283 lists 1 cup = 184 g as a direct standard portion. Bob's Red Mill's Whole Hull-Less Barley nutrition label lists 1/4 cup = 46 g, extrapolating to exactly 184 g/cup — a perfect USDA match. Whole Foods' bulk commodity label for Organic Barley (Hulled) lists the same 46 g per quarter cup. Three independent sources at 184 g/cup with zero spread justify a HIGH confidence single-figure publish, rare for grains where retail variance usually creates a modest range.

The counter-intuitive part is why hulled barley is lighter than pearl. Bakers who think about whole grains often assume that retaining the bran adds weight per cup — the bran is dense fibre, and it's on the outside of the kernel. But the pack density of a cup of loose grain is dominated by how efficiently kernels tessellate against each other, not by the bran's own density. Hulled barley's rough, uneven bran-coated surface creates air pockets between kernels; pearl barley's polished-smooth exterior lets kernels nest more tightly. The same phenomenon shows up in brown rice (roughly 190 g/cup) vs white long-grain rice (roughly 190-200 g/cup, with the difference varying by variety and grain length), and in wheat berries (about 195 g/cup whole) vs finely-milled bulgur (denser). Pearl barley's higher per-cup weight reflects tighter packing, not more matter per kernel.

King Arthur does not publish a weight for hulled barley in their Ingredient Weight Chart, though they do list Barley (pearled) at 7 1/2 oz = 213 g/cup — consistent with the pearl cluster at 200-216 g/cup, and 16% denser than hulled. That density gap of 29 g/cup is exactly what a recipe calling for "1 cup pearled barley" pays if it silently swaps to hulled: about 4 grams of fibre and 1.5 grams of protein gained per cup, along with a longer cook time and chewier texture.

Practical cook recommendation: weigh hulled barley at 184 g per cup, 46 g per quarter cup. Cooking ratio is 1 part barley to 3 parts water for a firm chewy texture (85-90 minutes on the stove), or 1:4 for a softer risotto-adjacent finish. Rinse before cooking to wash off any grain dust from milling. When substituting hulled for pearl barley in a soup or pilaf recipe, use the same volume but add 30-40 minutes to the cook time and expect a firmer, chewier bite; when substituting by weight, use the same weight and expect the same yield ratio since both are dry grain absorbing similar water proportions.