What do you have then? It's ALREADY food, already in the context of preservation, and it's a controlled smolder in the food itself. To remake the fire, you don't need to wait for a T-storm. In any season, just reproduce the way you fermented the barley. Same size of pile on same stone: presto!
= = = = = END REPRINT.
Now add another step:
Here Guk has placed a strip of Sabertooth meat on the fermenting barley. What happens? The fat melts down into the barley, and the top layer of barley fries and solidifies.
What do you have then? SANDWICH. And if Guk uses the stick to turn the Sabersteak over for more complete heating, the barley will grease up and fry up on all sides of the Sabersteak.
What do you have then? Pita or pierogi or pasty. The universal meat-inside-frybread envelope with universal bilabial name.
So I'd argue that barley gave us everything that makes us human. Fire, beer, bread, pita, money, measurements. All from barley.
The current icon shows Polistra using a Personal Equation Machine.