
A new wave of grain - indigodaddy
https://www.boulderweekly.com/special-editions/new-wave-grain/
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bootsz
> _“The public we were serving, in a broad sense, said, ‘We’re organic, we’re
> healthy, we’re vegan, we’re whole-grain,’ and then we’d roll out these
> whole-grain breads. … Everyone would say, ‘Woohoo!’ and then they’d show up
> and say, ‘I’ll take the baguette. I’ll take the ciabatta.’”_

I think part of the problem is that after 100+ years of increasingly
industrialized bread, most people today have rarely if ever encountered "real"
bread (including bread that is actually 100% whole-grain). I can't find a
citation at the moment, but I've heard from multiple sources that in the US,
commercial bread only needs to contain 51% whole wheat to be able to be
marketed as "whole wheat". So in reality when you see "100% Whole Wheat" on
the shelf, most times it's really more like a blend of white and whole wheat
(plus a whole bunch of other preservatives and other junk). If you actually
bake a loaf at home with only whole-wheat flour you will get something that is
much darker and denser.

There has been a similar phenomenon with "rye" bread in the US. Most bread
labeled "rye" that you see on store shelves here is a variant of a deli-style
bread originating in NYC. It is mostly white wheat flour with a little bit of
rye flour and caraway seed added. The flavor people associate with "rye" bread
is really just the flavor of caraway seed. In contrast, true whole-grain rye
bread is a very dense old-world style bread that you almost never see anymore
except for maybe in very niche artisan bakeries. Example:
[https://i.redd.it/bhwihp6j7dr01.jpg](https://i.redd.it/bhwihp6j7dr01.jpg)

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peterwwillis
We had "real" bread for millennia. We didn't forget about it, we actively
chose something new. Humans absolutely love refined, glutiney, sweet, white
flour. It's like the wheat equivalent of candy. We also love soda. It's not
like we forgot about tea, people just like soda more.

By the way, have you made bread with just wheat flour? It won't rise. I have
to add a bunch more water too to give the dough the right consistency.
Anything more than 50% wheat flour and in the oven it's just not going to get
big. You could probably add vital wheat gluten, but if you have to use more
than flour, salt, yeast and water, it isn't "bread" to me anymore, it's a
"baked good".

~~~
learc83
Soda, sweetened bread, and very sweet food in general aren't just
automatically better tasting. To an extent, it's an acquired taste.

When I was a kid I drank more soda than water. I still love the taste of Coke,
but now that I don't drink it often, more than a small bottle is too much.
It's not just Coke either--a lot of foods that I used to love are just too
sweet now that I'm not acclimated to them.

It's the same for many of my friends and family who are from other cultures
that don't consume quite as much sugar as we do in the US--they think
everything here is too sweet.

~~~
nicoburns
Indeed, US (and latin american) bread tastes weirdly sweet to my European
taste buds, and not in a good way! We don't put sugar in bread here at all
(except maybe very cheap bread, and of course sweet breads like brioche).

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indigodaddy
Once you start eating Einkorn loafs, you won't want to eat any other kind of
bread. I lightly toast my slices and add just a little butter, and it really
is like nothing else you've ever had.

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cwkoss
Research into Perennial grains has made some exciting progress recently as
well. Blue Salish and Kernza are the ones I've heard about.

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agsdfgsd
What is the purpose exactly? Everything I can find about it is just hand wavey
"its good for the environment because reasons".

~~~
zeckalpha
No need to till, better drought tolerance.

~~~
agsdfgsd
There's no need to till with any other grain either, the majority of grain is
farmed no-till already. Is there any actual evidence of better drought
tolerance, or is that just assumed based on the misconception that perennials
are more drought tolerant than annuals?

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Herodotus38
I didn't understand the quote: "with 14 chromosomes einkorn has less gluten".
Gluten is an expressed protein, I don't see how the number of chromosomes an
organism has correlates with its gluten content, unless gluten proteins are
directly involved in some sort of DNA-related process. But even then I thought
the number of chromosomes doesn't necessarily correlate with the amount of
generic material (that is, it's just how it is divided up). Can someone
explain this to me?

~~~
trashE
Maybe referring to gene expression. Einkorn is a tetraploid meaning it has 4
copies of each gene. Compared with hexaploids which have 6 genes. More genes
may mean higher protein expression. In some cases.

~~~
Herodotus38
I think you may be right. I also found this when googling "chromosomes
gluten", which recurringly refers to the 14 chromosomes and gluten content but
doesn't give any reason why:

[https://www.einkorn.com/3-reasons-einkorn-may-be-easier-
to-d...](https://www.einkorn.com/3-reasons-einkorn-may-be-easier-to-digest-
than-other-types-of-wheat/)

"This study, shows that Einkorn has 10% less amylose than it’s closest cousin,
Emmer and 20% less than Rye. It makes me wonder what it would be compared to
modern wheat! In addition, the chromosomal count of Einkorn is a simple 14
compared to modern wheat of 42. As the chromosomes of modern wheat has
increased, so has the modern wheat berry’s physical size. In ratio to that
Amylose and Amylopectin has increased also. Modern wheat has been found to
contain 75% Amylopectin."

I have a feeling they are correlated due to seed size but the number of
chromosomes isn't causative.

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thinkcontext
I'm lucky to live in a city with a bakery that is devoted to whole heritage
grains. They will their flour sourcing from local producers.

Seylou in Washington DC.

[http://www.seylou.com](http://www.seylou.com)

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brod
_side note:_ the way the header navigation of the linked site comes back into
view on scroll-up is much more pleasant than the typical "jump down" effect.
Still think the need for the header on scroll up is a bit absurd but hey, this
is the best implementation I've seen.

