April 15, 2017 - 2:44pm
another buckwheat question
Buckwheat flour bought from the miller at a street market in Brittany had tiny black specks in it and made delicious bread, strongly buckwheat flavoured. Doves Farm wholemeal buckwheat flour bought in Britain at Sainsbury's or a health shop lacks both the little specks and the lovely strong flavour - using the same hand-made recipe. Can you explain? And do you know where I can get flour in Britain like the flour bought from the miller in Brittany?
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dark or light. The dark is unhulled. The black specks are the ground hulls. The seed hulls give a more robust flavor to the flour.
The light buckwheat flour is ground from hulled seeds. So it's lighter in color and the flavor is not pronounced.
sorry, I don't know where you can purchase the unhulled dark buckwheat flour. Dark buckwheat flour is the most common one sold where I live. Just purchased a bag a few days ago.
Thank you. This is very helpful. However, the buckwheat flour we get here is described as "wholemeal". What does "wholemeal" mean? Is it different from "unhulled"?
kernel or seed is used in the milling of the flour. Wholemeal is the British term; in the US, we use the term Wholegrain.
The interesting thing about Wholegrain buckwheat is (at least in the US) is its milled with additional hulls to achieve the color and flavor.
I currently have two different brands of Wholegrain organic buckwheat flour in the pantry. One has a lot more bits of the hull. My guess is the difference is due to the amount of additional hulls added during mill. Each mill determines the ratio of hulls to whole seed.
It's the first time I purchased the brand with less hulls. I haven't tried the flour yet, but I'm guessing it will be lighter in flavor.
With the popularity of buckwheat, some people here buy the groats and grind their flour fresh. But since buckwheat groats is sold as hot cereal (porridge), its hulled. The hull is removed because it it's too chewy for porridge.
If the buckwheat groat is roasted, it's labeled as kasha. Most people say the roasted buckwheat make a great cereal, but the roasting makes for a very bitter flour. I domt grind my own flour, so I can't confirm this.
Thank you. I'm getting there. You may think I'm thick, and may well be right if you do, but this spawns two further questions (or requests for clarification). Do you mean the kernel/seed are different from the hull, so that "wholemeal" or "whole grain" means the whole seed but not the hull (or, I think, "husk")? Or do you mean the seed/kernel includes the hull/husk, but some millers go even further and add additional hull as well? Sorry to be so dense: this is all new to me, but light is beginning to glimmer in my understanding!
because we lump buckwheat in with cereal grains like wheat, rice, barley, and oats. But buckwheat is not a grain or a grass, it's a fruit seed. It's related to rhubarb and sorrel. As such, it's milled differently.
Grain hulls (wheat, rice, oats etc.,) are inedible, so we never use them in food applications.
Buckwheat is a flowering plant that produces seeds on the flower heads. The seeds have a soft hull that is easily removed. Since the hull is edible, we use the hull in both food and non-food applications.
When a wholemeal or wholegrain flour milled from an actual grain, like wheat or rice, the kernel is separated from the hull, then the entire kernel is used.
But buckwheat with its edible hull is milled differently--it can be mill with or without the hull. The traditional method is milling with the hull. And yes, some millers add extra hulls. But not all westerners like that robust flavor. So there's a large market for the buckwheat flour without the hull. And I think those who grind their own flour with raw groats, do so in part because they don't like the pronounced flavor that the hulls add to the flour.
I ate all buckwheat flour pancakes this morning for breakfast. Personally, I like the flavor. But I'm half-Japanese, so I grew up eating soba buckwheat noodles. If I had a choice of a bowl of pasta or zaru soba, I'd pick the zaru soba every time.