Durum Wheat - The lone wolf standing tall against bread wheat

Plus Rava vs Semolina

The world (at this point in time) uses 2 main varieties of wheat :

1. Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum vulgare)

2. Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum durum)

   

   Bread wheat and Durum wheat

There are other ancient varieties grown in smaller amounts like spelt, einkorn, emmer, etc. But they are mostly artisanal varieties, barely making a dent in the bucket of wheat trading.

Side note - did you notice that Bread wheat has the word ‘vulgare’ attached to it? Botanical names are sometimes really funny (I should do a column on that one day.) The word vulgar comes from the Latin vulgaris, from vulgus ‘common people’. So, the next time, someone accuses you of using ‘vulgar language’, you can be like - “oh you mean, you were offended by the language of the people…?!” :)

Anyways, the reason bread wheat is called vulgare wheat - is that - it really is a common wheat. Nearly 95% of world’s wheat is of the Triticum Aestivum variety. Hard wheat, soft wheat, spring wheat, atta, maida, rava etc. all fall under this species.

But not Durum.

Durum is a yellow colored  wheat which accounts for only 5% of the worlds wheat production. Durum breaks down into semolina. Turn any typical pasta packet around and they will be made from semolina flour.

Pasta made with semolina

However, no bread packet will have semolina flour listed as a main ingredient. No, sireee…bread needs the ‘vulgare’ type of flour - the regular wheat flour. And there’s a reason for that.

Durum has very high protein content and unlike regular wheat, when milled, it cracks and falls apart into grits rather than smooth flour. But this coarseness is a superpower. Pasta made from durum have a firm texture because the starch granules made from semolina do not absorb as much water as a flour based dough. This gives them the famous ‘al dente’ property.

(Advice to young ones: if you serve pasta at any Indian family gathering, there will be at least 1 elderly person, firmly declaring that al dente stage = undercooked, followed by a lengthy, winded lecture on how long to cook things…just speaking from experience :).

Bread, however, works on a different property. The flour needs to be finely milled, so that they can all hold hands together, and rise in the oven evenly as a network. Semolina, with its coarseness and what with it being the lone wolf and all, is not happy with all this meshing around it. Hence, it is not used to make breads.

Semolina would probably have not made amazing pasta, but for the fact that the mechanical dies used to make them squish them together and force them to play nice. It is painful to make semolina pasta manually, I tried - trust me!

(Fresh pasta - also a staple in Italian cuisine does use bread flour; but they are kneaded using eggs and not water, anyways that’s a story for another day)

Rava Vs Semolina

Durum is more expensive than regular wheat. If you follow food processing at all, you will know that anything that can be replaced with a cheaper alternative will be quickly replaced. Rava soon took over semolina in India in the 1960’s. Of course, there is Durum wheat still available, for example Bansi Rava is Durum Wheat. (There may be other regional varieties, if you know them, please add them in the comment below). But regular rava, which is white in color, is actually wheat farina. It is coarsely milled Triticum aestivum made to resemble semolina grits.

But cheaper does not mean worse. Upma actually comes out better using rava rather than semolina. However, in my opinion, rava idli is actually better when made with semolina. The original recipe developed by MTR, Bangalore, most likely used semolina flour. But, nowadays, you can add a pinch of turmeric to rava and make rava idli too.

I don’t think we are talking about a huge range of differences here…they are all from the same genus Triticum anyways. But, if you are like me, knowing these small differences, will help you sleep better at night :).

Have you cooked with rava and semolina before? What have you found? Let me know in the comments below.