Bulgur

I’ve detailed the mind-numbingly long history of wheat on previous pages. The history of bulgur is similarly ancient but significantly easier to understand.

Bulgur is not a grain in and of itself; it is any wheat berry, most often durum, parboiled, dried, and then, usually but not necessarily, cracked. In addition to being easy to understand, bulgur is also easy to cook. The parboiling cuts the preparation time to a fraction of the time needed to cook a raw wheat berry.

Bulgur is often confused for couscous, which is also not a grain in and of itself but instead very small pasta balls made, usually though not exclusively, from durum flour. Think of bulgur as the ancient version of “instant rice.” While it is technically a processed food, because the bran and germ are left intact, it is still a whole grain. It’s the most convenient food of the whole grain world.