Durum wheat or macaroni wheat is the only tetraploid species of wheat of commercial
importance that is widely cultivated today. It was developed by artificial selection of
the domesticated emmer wheat strains formerly grown in Central Europe and the Near East
around 7000 BC, which developed a naked, free-threshing form. Durum in Latin means "hard", and the
species is the hardest of all wheats. Its high protein content, as well as its strength,
make durum good for special uses, the most well-known being pasta, which in Italy is
exclusively made from durum wheat. Durum wheat is used extensively in breadmaking. However,
it is unusual in that, despite very high protein content, it is low in desirable gluten needed
to form a glutinous web necessary for bread to rise. As a result, although 100 percent
durum wheat breads do exist, such as pagnotte di Enna or "rimacinato" bread from Sicily,
as well as others, in most instances bread doughs contain only a portion of durum wheat
and are supplemented substantially with commercial white flours, often those higher in gluten
necessary to offset the poor gluten contribution of durum flour. When durum flour is used as
the sole flour in bread, substantial additions of isolated wheat gluten are necessary to
effect rising. Without it, 100 percent durum wheat breads are often heavy, with very close
grain, and will split easily when risen for baking.
Genealogy Durum wheat is a tetraploid wheat, having
28 chromosomes, unlike hard red winter and hard red spring wheats, which are hexaploid
and have 42 chromosomes each. Durum wheat originated through intergeneric
hybridization and polyploidization involving two diploid grass species: T. urartu and a
B-genome diploid related to Aegilops speltoides and is thus an allotetraploid species.
Uses Commercially produced dry pasta, or pasta
secca, is made almost exclusively from durum semolina. Certain home made fresh pastas,
such as orecchiette, cavatelli, and malloreddus, also use durum wheat, while others, such as
tagliatelle, use only soft wheat, often "00," or a combination of soft and hard wheats.
Husked but unground, or coarsely ground, it is used to produce the semolina in the couscous
of North Africa and the Levant. It is also used for Levantine dishes such as tabbula,
kishk, kibba, bitfun and the bulghur for pilafs. In North African cuisine and Levantine cuisine,
it forms the basis of many soups, gruels, stuffings, puddings and pastries. When ground
as fine as flour, it is used for making bread. In the Middle East, it is used for flat round
breads, and in Europe and elsewhere, it can be used for pizza, torte, etc. It is not,
however, good for cakes, which are made from soft wheat to ensure softness.
The use of wheat to produce pasta was described as early as the 10th century by Ibn Wahshīya
of Cairo. The North Africans called the product itrīya, from which Italian sources derived
the term tria during the 15th century. Another type of pasta, al-fidawsh, was popular
in al-Andalus. From there it was transmitted to Christian Spain, and it frequently appears
in Hispano-Muslim cookbooks. From al-fidawsh was derived the Spanish word for noodles,
fideos, and the Italian fidelli or fidellini. In the American Great Plains, durum wheat
is used almost exclusively for making pasta products such as spaghetti and macaroni.
Production Most of the durum grown today is amber durum,
the grains of which are amber-colored and larger than those of other types of wheat.
Durum has a yellow endosperm, which gives pasta its color. When durum is milled, the
endosperm is ground into a granular product called semolina. Semolina made from durum
is used for premium pastas and breads. There is also a red durum, used mostly for livestock
feed. The cultivation of durum generates greater
yield than other wheats in areas of low precipitation. Good yields can be obtained by irrigation,
but this is rarely done. In the first half of the 20th century, the crop was widely grown
in Russia. Durum is one of the most important food crops in West Asia. Although the variety
of the wheat there is diverse, it is not extensively grown there, and thus must be imported. West
amber durum produced in Canada is used mostly as semolina/pasta, but some is also exported
to Italy for bread production. In the Middle East and North Africa, local
bread-making accounts for half the consumption of durum. Some flour is even imported. On
the other hand, many countries in Europe produce durum in commercially significant quantities.
Processing Durum wheat is subject to four processes:
cleaning, tempering, milling and purifying. First, durum wheat is cleaned to remove foreign
material and shrunken and broken kernels. Then it is tempered to a moisture content,
toughening the seed coat for efficient separation of bran and endosperm. Durum milling is a
complex procedure involving repetitive grinding and sieving. Proper purifying results in maximum
semolina yield and the least amount of bran powder.
To produce bread, durum wheat is ground into flour. The flour is mixed with water to produce
dough. The quantities mixed vary, depending on the acidity of the mixture. The dough is
mixed with yeast and lukewarm water, and then fermented for hours. The quality of the bread
produced depends on the viscoelastic properties of gluten, the protein content and protein
composition. References
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Brill Publishers . Donnelly; Ponte, Joseph G Jr, "Pasta: raw
materials & processing", in Kulp, Karel; Ponte, Joseph G Jr, Handbook of Cereal Science and
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of Crops and Farming Techniques, 700–1100, Studies in Islamic Civilization, Cambridge,
UK: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-06883-3 . Wishart, David J, Encyclopedia of the Great
Plains, University of Nebraska Press . External links
Durum Growers, US . Durum Wheat Research, Grain Research Laboratory,
Canadian Grain Commission .