Beyond the Ri'ichi: Part 5:Processing wheat - Satake PeriTecSystem

摘要

Different from rice, wheat is not cooked and eaten as grain in its natural form but turned into flour beforehand. The bran within rice is more rigid, so it has to be polished, making it more suitable for consumption as a grain, while wheat is better for consumption as flour because of its softer inner part, yet a tough outer skin. Wheat is edible as grain in some parts of the world, but it is common to use it in the form of flour.Also, rice and wheat look completely different from their appearance in colour and shape, wheat has a groove (crease) in the grain. However, observations through electronic microscope show that their structures are very similar. Like peeling the skin from a fruit, the seed coat, as well as the glue powder layer, are peeled off during the milling process in the case of rice. Generally, in the case of wheat, the outer skin is separated while crushing the grains and the endosperm turned into powder which is used to make bread, noodles, confectioneries, etc. Another reason for using wheat in the form of flour is that it is easier to obtain gluten from it.