July 30, 2008 - 1:12pm
farro(italian) emmer wheat
After reading some comments on emmer wheat I came across this site.
Can anyone tell me what Italians use Emmer wheat for, has it any quality's that modern wheat has lost. I was told it translated to spelt but this is not true? Wednesday 30th july 2008 at 10.10 ireland.
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There's lots of confusion and opinion about the IDs.
My understanding is that the problem is with the italian word "farro" - and that the problem is that it is a general, not a specific, term.
Here's a reference:
However, I believe that both Monococcum ("Einkorn") and Dicoccum ("Emmer") are rather rarer than Spelt.
What is it used for? Well, AFAIK in Italy "farro" is usually served as steamed or boiled grain as a starchy filler/carrier - in the same sort of way that rice (or pearl barley) is eaten. But its tastier than rice or barley...
Here's a hot veg dish http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/recipes/farro-with-broadbeans-peas-asparagus-and-spinach-855975.html
And a cold salad http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/may/28/recipe.foodanddrink
And a soup http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/599198
In the UK, you can buy pre-cooked "farro" grain - for example - the Valfrutta brand (available at least from Waitrose & Ocado):
http://tinyurl.com/6yu5b5
interestingly, the big writing on the tin says "Spelt" and the small print ingredients listing says "Farro". Go figure!
I've used both the tinned cooked grains (occasionally) and spelt flour (often) in my bread baking. It has a pleasant slightly nutty flavour. But because of a lower gluten content, the dough (and bread) rises differently - less!
It makes good nutritional sense to eat a well-varied diet.
I think you'd do better to worry about modern industrial breadmaking than about modern strains of wheat. Check out the Chorleywood Bread Process...
EDITED the link to tinned steamed Spelt grain ("farro") at Ocado -- it has a strange "|" character which broke the linking, but hopefully, it works via tinyurl...