[Sca-cooks] Frumenty.

[Decker, Terry D.]

Soft wheats were more common in Europe until the modern period.  Triticum
spelta (spelt) and Triticum durum (durum) were among the hardest available
wheats.

Einkorn (Triticum monococcum) was the common wheat in the British Isles
until the 1st Century BCE when the Romans introduced emmer (Triticum
dicoccum) to Southeast England.

Emmer was slowly replaced by club wheat (Triticum compactum) between 600 and
900 CE.  Most of the wheat grown today are variants of Triticum compactum,
Triticum vulgare (common wheat) and Triticum durum.

The basic hybridization of wheat was accomplished before recorded history,
so the differences between period and modern wheat are mostly in disease
resistance, greater yield and higher gluten content.  An exception is
triticale, a hybrid of wheat and rye.

A flour with between 6 and 9 per cent protein (such as various cake flours
and some of the southern all purpose flours like White Lily) will probably
be closest to Medieval fine, white flour.

Bear


> My wondering is which would have been more common among which
> people's/times . . . harder or softer wheats.  My guess is that it would
> be regional and seasonal. and that many of today's grains are so
> engineered and hybridized that they lose any resemblance to 13th century
> Southern english wheat.  Did your research uncover anything on the
> available varieties, Ruth?
>
> pacem et bonum,
> niccolo difrancesco
>