Durum

Durum Wheat.

Durum wheat is a type of wheat that contains high percentages of protein, fibre, and other vitamins and low percentages of gluten. It is one of the most nutritional wheats. It is frequently used to make pastas and thicker breads. It was developed by artificial selection from diploid grasses. Durum gets its name from the Latin word for "hard". Although it's very heavy, which makes it hard for bakers to make bread because they need a lighter wheat to make the bread rise. The appearance of pasta is yellow in colour due to the endosperm which has nutritional value however white pastas and noodles generally contain little or no nutritional value. Semolina is the name given to pastas that are made from Durum wheat.

Manufacturing

When preparing durum wheat for processing, it goes through 4 processes. First is the cleaning to remove impurities such as foreign seeds and kernels as well as the bran and germ. The next step is tempering the durum wheat, when it is milled, its endosperm is ground up into a product called semolina whose quality and granulation will be determined by this process. peeling or pearling is done to remove layers of bran, this improves the time it takes to mill and reduces contamination of the finished semolina. The semolina is first ground by dull grinding rolls after that it is separated into passages of different sizes that use a sharp grinding process. There are about seven passages to reduce the amount of endosperm that get separated from the bran. The last process is the purification process. This is done by sifting the ground semolina into the purifiers that separate the good endosperm from bran and the clustered compounds.

Genealogy

Durum is a allotetraploid wheat (it has two genomes: AABB), it has 28 chromosomes. Durum wheat originates from the process of crossing of two types of plants over hundreds of years to produce Durum, this is called intergeneric hybridisation. Two species of diploid grass, Triticum urartu (AA genome). The BB genome is unknown.

Uses

Many of the varieties of flatbread made from durum wheat come from North Africa and the Middle East. The breads made from durum wheat are ver filling due to the heaviness of the wheat. It is also used to make cous cous which is a grain like dish that look like small pebbles. The thick texture is great for making pasta, it wraps the ingredients together when making pasta shapes. Durum wheat is extremely common in pasta which has led to it being referred as macaroni wheat. It is used in the Middle East and North Africa to make thick loaves of bread and flatbreads like naan. It is used to make pasta because it is of its coarse nature and low gluten content.

References

1. T, Anna (May 24, 2015). ”What is Durum wheat”. Wisegeek clear answers common answers. Retrieved 2015-5-21
2. Taylor, Deila. “Whole Wheat vs. Durum Wheat vs. Stone Ground”. SFGATE. Retrieved 2015-5-21
3. (January 28, 2015). “Durum flour”. Good mills Deutschland. Retrieved 2015-5-21
4. Fowler, Mark (February 7, 2014). “The complexities of durum milling”. World-grain.com. Retrieved 2015-5-21
5. Perrin, Barbara (January 28, 2015). “Durum Wheat Vs. Whole Wheat”. Livestrong.com. Retrieved 2015-5-21

Food Portal — All articles about food, chefs, restaurants, cookbooks and more