What Cereals Are Made Of: Semolina, Couscous And Bulgur

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 12:53

Semolina, couscous, bulgur - do you know what these cereals are made of?

Everyone knows what oatmeal is made of. How buckwheat is obtained is also a known fact. But what and how is semolina made from? What about couscous and bulgur? In fact, these cereals have more in common than you might think.

What semolina, couscous and bulgur are made of

Semolina, couscous and bulgur are made from wheat grains. The difference between cereals lies only in the processing method.

Semolina

Semolina is ground wheat grains. The grinding is very fine, the particle diameter is about 0.5 mm. Thanks to this, semolina is prepared so easily and quickly.

Semolina has a very fine grind

Couscous

Couscous is now most often made from semolina. Cereals other than wheat are very rarely used. Semolina is sprinkled with water, small grains are formed from it, and then rolled in dry semolina. The resulting result is sieved, getting rid of too small particles.

Now the production of couscous groats is automated, but in small settlements it is still made by hand.

Bulgur

The traditional method of making bulgur is as follows:

1. The harvested wheat is carefully sorted out.
2. Water is boiled in large cauldrons.
3. The collected wheat is poured into boiling water and cooked until soft.
4. Then the wheat is laid out in a thin layer on a flat surface and allowed to dry.
5. After that, the grains decrease in size, shrink, darken. Now they can be moisturized and peeled. For this, different methods are used - special machines, wooden mortars and hammers, stone wheels.
6. After peeling, drying is repeated. As a result, the kernels are separated from the bran.
7. The resulting peeled kernels can be crushed. In agriculture, stone millstones are used for this.

With the advent of globalization, the thousand-year tradition fades into the background and becomes a rarity. Now this cereal is produced on an industrial scale using automated steam processing and subsequent crushing. This is the kind of bulgur we meet in stores.

Bulgur is now used in the cuisines of the Middle East, Caucasus, India, southern Russia, and Pakistan. True, there he is called differently - dalia.

Wheat grains are boiled in boiling water before crushing

Now you know how and from what popular and tasty cereals are made.