Wheat Products and Dishes

Among the products flour is pre-eminent. Other wheat products include:

• Amulum, a thickening starch, was made by the Romans from emmer. ‘Amulum’ means ‘unground’. Whole grains were soaked for several days and squeezed in a cloth to force out a fine paste which was dried to a powder. It continued in use into the Middle Ages, when it was known as ‘amidon’.

• Boiled wheat is important in some regions. A popular Bulgarian boiled wheat dish with nuts, sugar, and lemon juice is vareno zhito; see also the connected sweet dish aşure. Greeks also have a wheat sweetmeat, most often seen as a funeral food, called koliva. A curious old Russian graveside ritual involving the Russian version of boiled wheat is described in blini. Special festive wheat puddings are made by the Lebanese Maronites (Qamhiyya), and by Sephardic Jews in the Balkans (kofyas).

• burghul (bulgur) is cracked wheat; wheat which has been parboiled, parched, and coarsely ground. It has numerous uses in the Middle East and neighbouring regions. For example, it plays an essential role in tabbouleh and can be the basis for a pilaf; it can also be used to make porridge, taking less time to cook and having a more tender texture.

• couscous.

• freekeh, roasted green wheat, is an exceptional delicacy of the Arab world.

• Parched wheat, wheat cooked by dry heat, which makes it more digestible and gives it a nutty taste. This has been eaten since very early times, before the invention of bread. It is often mentioned in the Bible. It may be eaten as it is or combined with liquid ingredients in various dishes.

• porridge is not, on the whole, a successful dish for wheat. Wheat porridges take a long time to cook and are relatively tasteless, greatly inferior to oat porridge. They have, however, been eaten in the north of China, like corresponding rice dishes in the south. There are various ways of making them more interesting. frumenty is a wheat porridge enriched with milk and often spiced, which was popular in medieval Europe, and still is in some regions. See haleem for a wheat and meat ‘porridge’ made in Iran, Afghanistan, and India. This may also be compared to the Turkish keşkek which is often a feature of Anatolian wedding celebrations.

• semolina.

• Sprouted wheat is used to make a salad or cooked vegetable and is popular with modern vegetarians. In sprouting, it develops vitamin C which is not present in the original grain. Samanak is the sprouting wheat which is made into a pudding at New Year (Nauroz, first day of spring) in Iran and Afghanistan.

• Wheatgerm and the wheatgerm oil which it contains are extracted and sold separately. Wheatgerm is often used as a dietary supplement (it contains vitamin B) and is added to some brown breads.