Ancient wheat
Einkorn
Triticum monococcum
Diploid (AA) — the oldest cultivated wheat
In the atlas
Einkorn is wheat before wheat got complicated. Fourteen chromosomes, a tiny berry, a hull that must be stripped. It was domesticated beside emmer at the dawn of farming and then nearly forgotten. High protein, stubbornly weak gluten: the proteins are there, but they refuse to build the trampoline modern bakers expect. That is not a defect. It is a different instrument.
Origin. Karacadağ mountains, southeastern Turkey — ~10,000 BCE
Flavor. Rich, eggy, almost like fresh corn and honey.
Worth knowing
- Lacks the D genome — glutenin/gliadin ratio is unlike bread wheat.
- Dough is sticky, yellow, and happiest with wet hands, not a mixer.
- Often better tolerated anecdotally; still unsafe for celiac disease.
- Carotenoids rival durum — loaves bake up sunshine-gold.
Flours you can make
| Flour | Extraction | Protein | Gluten | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whole-grain flour | 100% | 16% | 6.5% | Everything the berry holds — bran, germ, and endosperm. Mill 1:1 by weight. Use within days, or freeze. |
| High-extraction (85%) | 85% | 15.7% | 6.7% | Sift once through a #30–#40 sieve. Keeps most flavor and minerals, slightly stronger dough than 100%. |
| Bolted all-purpose style | 75% | 15.4% | 6.9% | Second sifting (#50–#60). Lighter crumb, longer shelf life, less fiber. Bran left behind is gold in porridge. |
Nutrition / 100 g
- Calories
- 333 kcal
- Protein
- 16 g
- Carbs
- 65 g
- Fiber
- 9 g
- Fat
- 2.6 g
- Iron
- 4.7 mg
- Magnesium
- 150 mg
- Zinc
- 4 mg
- Thiamin
- 0.45 mg
- Selenium
- 20 µg
Typical whole-grain flour / 100 g.
Sources & USDA linksBuy it retail
- Grand Teton Ancient Grains
- Breadtopia
- Jovial Foods
- Azure Standard
- Pleasant Hill Grain
- Young Living / ancient grain farms
Availability rotates by harvest. Search the berry name plus “food grade.”
Bakes well as
Mill Einkorn now
Miller’s desk
Grain to flour
Vital wheat gluten booster
Most bags of vital wheat gluten are 75–80% protein. The booster is added on top of the flour, not swapped in.
Whole-grain flour · Weak gluten
- Whole grain needed
- 508 g
- Flour you’ll get
- 500 g
- Bran left behind
- 0 g
- Protein in that flour
- 80 g · 16%
- Natural gluten
- 6.5%
- Add VWG
- None needed
- After VWG
- 16% protein · 6.5% gluten
About 2.6 cups of berries → 4.2 cups of whole-grain flour. Whole-grain milling is essentially 1:1 by weight; sifting is where you lose bran.
How to mill it
Do not add water as if it were hard red. Start drier, then adjust.
Fine. Berries are small — a slow hopper feed prevents clogs.
Tempering: Skip. Too soft to bother.
Everything the berry holds — bran, germ, and endosperm. Mill 1:1 by weight. Use within days, or freeze.
Milling 101 →Next: bake it
Pick a loaf for this flour
16% protein after VWG · Einkorn whole-grain flour. Sandwich loaf, focaccia, sourdough — the kitchen will scale dough, hydration, and times to this mix.
