Wheat: Encyclopedia II - Wheat - Wheat in the United States

Wheat - Wheat in the United States

Classes used in the United States are

• Durum - Very hard, translucent, light colored grain used to make semolina flour for pasta.
• Hard Red Spring - Hard, brownish, high protein wheat used for bread and hard baked goods.
• Hard Red Winter - Hard, brownish, very high protein wheat used for bread, hard baked goods and as an adjunct in other flours to increase protein.
• Soft Red Winter - Soft, brownish, medium protein wheat used for bread.
• Hard White - Hard, light colored, opaque, chalky, medium protein wheat planted in dry, temperate areas. Used for bread and brewing
• Soft White - Soft, light colored, very low protein wheat grown in temperate moist areas. Used for bread.

Hard wheats are harder to process and red wheats may need bleaching. Therefore, soft and white wheats usually command higher prices than hard and red wheats on the commodities market.

Much of the following text is taken from the Household Cyclopedia of 1881:

Wheat may be classed under two principal divisions, though each of these admits of several subdivisions. The first is composed of all the varieties of red wheat. The second division comprehends the whole varieties of white wheat, which again may be arranged under two distinct heads, namely, thick-chaffed and thin-chaffed.

Thick-chaffed wheat varieties were the most widely used before 1799, as they generally make the best quality flour, and in dry seasons, equal the yields of thin-chaffed varieties. However, thick-chaffed varieties are particularly susceptible to mildew, while thin-chaffed varieties are quite hardy and in general are more resistant to mildew. Consequently, a widespread outbreak of mildew in 1799 began a gradual decline in the popularity of thick-chaffed varieties.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Wheat in the United States", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki