Barley flakes are whole or hulled barley (Hordeum vulgare) that has been steamed soft and pressed between rollers into thin, pale-gold flakes — the barley equivalent of rolled oats. Flattening the grain shortens its cooking time from the better part of an hour to a few minutes, so the flakes swell quickly into a creamy, chewy porridge, stir into muesli and granola, thicken soups and stews, and bind into breads, bakes and flapjacks. They carry the same nutty, malty, mildly sweet cereal flavour as whole barley, together with its prized beta-glucan soluble fibre. In parts of the world the same product travels under regional names — among them the Ethiopian and Horn-of-Africa "chorho," a flaked black-barley porridge grain.