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Emmer's main use is as food, though it is also used as fodder. Ethnographic evidence from Turkey and other emmer-growing areas suggests that emmer makes good bread (judged by the taste and texture standards of traditional bread); it was widely eaten as bread in ancient Egypt. [33] In Armenian cuisine, emmer pilaf is cooked in sunflower oil.
Other than emmer, barley was grown to make bread and also used for making beer, and so were lily seeds and roots, and tiger nut. The grit from the quern stones used to grind the flour mixed in with bread was a major source of tooth decay due to the wear it produced on the enamel.
Other major grains grown included einkorn wheat and emmer wheat, grown to make bread. Other staples for the majority of the population included beans, lentils, and later chickpeas and fava beans. Root crops, such as onions, garlic and radishes were grown, along with salad crops, such as lettuce and parsley. [2]
Bread wheat, difficult to grow in Mediterranean climates, and the white bread made from it, were associated with the upper classes in the ancient Mediterranean, while the poor ate coarse brown breads made from emmer wheat and barley.
Bread wheat is an allohexaploid – a combination of six sets of chromosomes from different species. Of the six sets of chromosomes, four come from emmer (Triticum turgidum, itself a tetraploid) and two from Aegilops tauschii (a wild diploid goatgrass).
Spelt most likely originated as a hybrid of bread wheat and emmer. It continues to influence modern breeds of bread wheat. [12] Spelt, being closely related to bread wheat, is a likely source of alleles to increase wheat's genetic diversity, and so improve crop yields. Analysis of the Oberkulmer cultivar of spelt found 40 alleles that could ...
A bread stall, from a Pompeiian wall painting. Most people would have consumed at least 70 percent of their daily calories in the form of cereals and legumes. [1] Grains included several varieties of wheat—emmer, rivet wheat, einkorn, spelt, and common wheat (Triticum aestivum) [2] —as well as the less desirable barley, millet, and oats.
Emmer is the most common variety of farro grown in Italy, specifically in certain mountain regions of Tuscany and Abruzzo. It is considered to be of higher quality for cooking than the other two grains and thus is sometimes called "true" farro. [5] Spelt is much more commonly grown in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.