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Uses | Characteristics
Emmer
Origin (taken from Alternative Wheat Cereals as Food Grains: Einkorn, Emmer, Spelt, Kamut, and Triticale - G.F. Stallknecht, K.M. Gilbertson, and J.E. Ranney)
Triticcum dicoccum- BioOz Emmer or Farro is a unique grain. It is similar in texture to durum or Kamut but is much smaller in grain size and much darker in colour. As it is the lowest yielding of all the wheats we have grown it also has the highest protein content. Although Emmer has a high protein content it is the most difficult to bake with and as such we are only selling a white flour made from Emmer. The real strength of Emmer is in the texture of the grain. It is not unlike rice in texture and is currently being used by some of Australia’s best Italian restaurants.
The sites of origin of emmer are considered to be similar to einkorn, within the regions of the Near East (Nevo 1988.
The use of emmer as a cereal food is considered to be contemporary with that of einkorn. Similar to einkorn, the earliest civilizations initially consumed emmer as a porridge prior to developing the process of bread making.
Remnants of wild emmer in early civilization sites date to the late Paleolithic Age 17,000 BC (Zohary and Hopf 1993). Cultivated emmer emerged as the predominant wheat along with barley as the principal cereals utilized by civilizations in the late Mesolithic, and early Neolithic Ages 10,000 BC (Helmqvist 1955; Harlan 1981; Zohary and Hopf 1993). Cultivated emmer dispersion and use by early civilizations greatly exceeded that of einkorn. Due to the addition of the BB genome cultivated emmer could be grown in a wider range of environments including regions having high growing season temperatures. Cultivated emmer became the dominant wheat throughout the Near and Far East, Europe, and Northern Africa from the Neolithic (Stone Age) through the Bronze Age 10,000-4,000 BC. Emmer utilization continued through the Bronze Age 4,000-1,000 BC, during which the naked wheats, primarily the tetraploid species slowly displaced emmer. However, emmer continued to be popular in isolated regions such as south central Russia into the early 1900s. Presently emmer remains an important crop in Ethiopia and a minor crop in India and Italy (Harlan 1981; Perrino and Hammer 1982).
Uses | Characteristics
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