You’ve cooked your way through quinoa of every color, dabbled in amaranth and moved beyond millet. That farro and kale salad? It’s been in your dinner party rotation for at least two years, writes Melissa Clark for the New York Times.
But when was the last time you cooked up a pot of whole berry spelt? And have you ever tried einkorn, emmer or any of the other ancient, heirloom and obscure grains that are now becoming available at the greenmarket and specialty shops all over the country?
But when was the last time you cooked up a pot of whole berry spelt? And have you ever tried einkorn, emmer or any of the other ancient, heirloom and obscure grains that are now becoming available at the greenmarket and specialty shops all over the country?
Even if you haven’t, chefs at New York’s high-end restaurants have — seduced by the same nutty, rich and earthy flavors and high nutritional content that lured our ancestors away from their millenniums-old diet of foraged berries and the occasional antelope. Home cooks would be wise to follow suit, because cooking with these grains, each with its own characteristics and nuance, can be a delectable endeavor.
For example, at Upland, there’s savory rye and emmer porridge beneath the osso buco. Chewy einkorn berries speckle a pleasingly textured pan sauce for chicken at Gramercy Tavern. Dan Barber stirs unpearled barley, buckwheat groats and spelt into a rice-free risotto at Blue Hill, while farther uptown at Eleven Madison Park, Daniel Humm crisps emmer in hot oil to use as a garnish for salads and vegetables. And at Semilla, Pamela Yung miraculously makes fermented whole grain oatmeal with brown butter and beets into a sublime dessert.
Chefs’ newfound love for ancient and heirloom grains is a natural progression from their obsession with all things local, sustainable and authentic. Why serve the heritage pork loin and heirloom radicchio next to pappardelle made from plain commodity flour, especially when local emmer flour grown and ground on a small farm creates a better narrative on the plate? Then there’s the fact that emmer — a hardy, nutritious and nutty-tasting berry that is the ancestor of durum wheat — happens to make incredibly flavorful, springy pasta.
“We wanted to be as close to 100 percent local as possible,” said Jenny Jones, the receiving manager at Gramercy Tavern, who is in charge of procuring everything from hand-harvested Amagansett sea salt to that local emmer flour for the pappardelle.
“We source plenty of fruits, vegetables, meat and fish but were having trouble with the rest of the plate. Potatoes were no problem, but we couldn’t put heirloom potatoes on every dish.”
But since then, groups as disparate as small-scale farmers, artisanal bread bakers and people looking to reduce gluten in their diets began seeking them out, and interest spread.
Prehistoric wheat varieties, including spelt, emmer and einkorn, are reaching the fringes of the mainstream, along with other formerly marginalized grains like buckwheat groats, kamut, rye berries, sorghum, unpearled barley and triticale, a rye and wheat hybrid. (Although some people with gluten sensitivities report that they find ancient wheat varieties like spelt, emmer and einkorn more digestible than modern wheat, these grains do contain gluten and are therefore not appropriate for people with celiac disease.)
For small-scale farmers all over the country, growing these grains is a smart, soil-enriching farming practice, said Elizabeth Dyck, the coordinator of the Organic Growers’ Research and Information-Sharing Network.
“Farmers know that small grains are great to plant in rotation because they break the pest cycle and produce a lot of organic matter for the soil,” she said. They also do well under extreme, high-stress conditions.
“If you are growing traditional wheat and emmer side by side and you have a drought, the wheat will fail but the emmer will not,” she said.
All of this means cooks now have access to more interesting and diverse whole grain varieties than ever before. And they are attached to the story we want to hear: that the food on our plates is healthful (ancient grains can have more protein, minerals and other nutrients than modern wheat) and that it can be sustainably grown by small-scale farmers.
Read more HERE.
For example, at Upland, there’s savory rye and emmer porridge beneath the osso buco. Chewy einkorn berries speckle a pleasingly textured pan sauce for chicken at Gramercy Tavern. Dan Barber stirs unpearled barley, buckwheat groats and spelt into a rice-free risotto at Blue Hill, while farther uptown at Eleven Madison Park, Daniel Humm crisps emmer in hot oil to use as a garnish for salads and vegetables. And at Semilla, Pamela Yung miraculously makes fermented whole grain oatmeal with brown butter and beets into a sublime dessert.
“We wanted to be as close to 100 percent local as possible,” said Jenny Jones, the receiving manager at Gramercy Tavern, who is in charge of procuring everything from hand-harvested Amagansett sea salt to that local emmer flour for the pappardelle.
But since then, groups as disparate as small-scale farmers, artisanal bread bakers and people looking to reduce gluten in their diets began seeking them out, and interest spread.
Prehistoric wheat varieties, including spelt, emmer and einkorn, are reaching the fringes of the mainstream, along with other formerly marginalized grains like buckwheat groats, kamut, rye berries, sorghum, unpearled barley and triticale, a rye and wheat hybrid. (Although some people with gluten sensitivities report that they find ancient wheat varieties like spelt, emmer and einkorn more digestible than modern wheat, these grains do contain gluten and are therefore not appropriate for people with celiac disease.)
“Farmers know that small grains are great to plant in rotation because they break the pest cycle and produce a lot of organic matter for the soil,” she said. They also do well under extreme, high-stress conditions.
“If you are growing traditional wheat and emmer side by side and you have a drought, the wheat will fail but the emmer will not,” she said.
All of this means cooks now have access to more interesting and diverse whole grain varieties than ever before. And they are attached to the story we want to hear: that the food on our plates is healthful (ancient grains can have more protein, minerals and other nutrients than modern wheat) and that it can be sustainably grown by small-scale farmers.
Read more HERE.
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