[Sca-cooks] What Samidh Flour Isn't

Terry Decker t.d.decker at att.net
Thu Aug 15 13:56:21 PDT 2013


Al Warraq is 10th Century Baghdad.  Earlier Mesopotamian wheats were einkorn 
(Triticum monococcum) and emmer (T. dicoccum) dating to the 9th Century BCE. 
Durum (AKA semolina, T. durum) appears slightly later.  Emmer and durum may 
also be presented as subspecies of Triticum turgidum if one choses to lump 
tetraploid wheats together taxonomically.  Spelt (T. spelta) follows a more 
northerly migration path and probably either unknown or of limited 
cultivation.  The related, common wheat (T. aestivum) is believed to have 
developed in the Middle East around the 10th Century BCE.  Emmer became the 
primary grain of the region and was the most widely cultivated wheat in 
Antiquity, although barley replaced emmer in Southern Mesopotamia, probably 
due to soil salinity increasing from irrigation.  Emmer is still widely 
cultivated in the Middle East, while common wheat slowly replaced emmer in 
Europe beginning in Late Antiquity/Early Medieval period.

Emmer is high in starch and has the interesting of being low in gluten, but 
still high in protein.  This suggest to me that samidh flour is finely 
ground, triple bolted whole grain emmer flour.  Emmer flour is being 
produced in the Pacific Northwest as a specialty flour, so you may be able 
to find it through a specialty grocer.  Of course, you might get a better 
deal through a Middle Eastern grocer.

Bear

> Lots of al Warraq's recipes specify samidh flour. I have usually 
> interpreted that as semolina, following out Charles Perry's suggestion, 
> but there isn't much evidence. Nasrallah, the translator, mentions two 
> similar kinds of flour of which the samidh has lower gluten. That suggests 
> that perhaps I ought to be using ordinary bread flour, or even cake flour, 
> as per our recent discussion.
>
> So I decided on an experiment. I've done the recipe for crumbly crackers 
> multiple times using semolina, and been happy at the result. They keep 
> well and my daughter likes them, so too many isn't a serious problem. 
> Finally, the recipe specifies quantities for flour and water, by 
> weight--both measured in ratl's, giving an unambiguous ratio. I mixed up 
> two batches, one using cake flour and one using ordinary all purpose 
> flour.
>
> The recipe tells you to knead vigorously then set aside to ferment. In the 
> case of the cake flour, that was impossible, because using the ratio by 
> weight specified in the recipe produced something closer to a batter than 
> a dough--not kneadable. The regular flour wasn't quite that bad when I 
> initially mixed it up, although it was pretty wet, but by the time it had 
> fermented for ten hours, my usual, it too was too liquid for the final 
> kneading. I ended up putting in about half again as much flour in each as 
> the recipe called for.
>
> I don't know whether samidh is semolina but it could be. It can't be 
> anything very close to either of the other two flours I've tried.
>
> David Friedman




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