SC - Beef Stew With Vegetables!!!

[Philip & Susan Troy]

The decision of which to use depends larely on how much time you have and
the texture of the dish you desire.

Most of the recipes I'm familiar with use grain meal (cracked).  I do have
one which uses whole berries cooked in cream, sugar and spices.  Tasty, but
it takes a long time to cook.  Whole grains will take longer to prepare than
grain meal and usually require soaking overnight to soften them.

There are four grades of cracked wheat based on the fineness of the meal (I
would need to find my notes on this to give you the precise grades).  Most
readily available cracked grains are of average fineness.  Bulgur wheat is
cracked wheat which has been pre-cooked.  Bulgur wheat absorbs water quickly
and cooks faster than cracked wheat.  Most grain meals will cook up in about
30 minutes.

Toasted grains taste better (to me, at least) than untoasted.

Millet is also fun to prepare this way.

Bear

> Does anyone have any experience or suggestions regarding using hard
> wheat or soft wheat berries for frumenty (versus cracked wheat, bulgur
> wheat, or barley)? The question was raised last year by Chimene (but I
> wasn't here then), but I couldn't find an answer to it in Stefan's
> Florilegium (yes, I actually checked first, thus depriving Stefan of the
> opportunity to suggest....)
> 
> Seumas
>