Hard Red Wheat Vs. Hard White Wheat

We get asked many times what is the difference between the two hard wheats that we sell in our store and bring in for our wholesale food and grain order each fall.  We hope this article will clarify everything.

Whole wheat berries: Choose from hard red or hard white wheat, both ideal for bread making. Breads made with hard red and hard white wheat will be very similar; the main difference is that red wheat produces a fuller, heartier flavour, and the bread will have a slightly darker colour. Many of our customers prefer the whole grain white wheat, and a good number prefer the red — it's a matter of taste. If you're just beginning with whole grain baking and don't know how to pick, we suggest starting with hard white wheat. Note: Don't confuse "whole grain white wheat" with store-bought "white flour"! White wheat is called "white" just because it's slightly lighter-coloured than "red" wheat; in fact, both are shades of reddish-brown. Store-bought white flour, on the other hand, is essentially nothing more than the endosperm (energy-producing carbohydrate) part of the kernel, with nearly everything nutritious removed in the interest of indefinite after-milling shelf life... which benefits huge commercial millers, at the expense of your health and the character of your food.

Hard Red Wheat:  This grain is planted in the spring and is not irrigated, thus yielding a hight protein and low moisture content.  This type of grain makes and excellent loaf of bread when used with any other types of lighter flours.  It can be mixed with grains like rye or Kamut to make a different flavour but the gluten content of the wheat will allow the bread to rise fairly high, even with the lower gluten grains like the rye included.  Red Wheat has dark brown colour and a branier flavour than the white white.  This grain is a great storage grain and will keep 30 years plus when stored in cool and dry conditions.  For long term storage, it is best to place it in rodent-proof containers and use dry ice on a paper to displace all the oxygen (lid on but not closed tight).  After 1/2 and hour the dry ice will disappear and you can close the lid tightly.  We have carried Hard Red Wheat for years and love its versatility and long-term storage qualities.

Hard White Wheat:  White Wheat has recently been developed (last 20 years) by essentially crossing Hard Red Wheat with Soft White wheat and getting characteristics of both of the parent grains.  The White wheat is lighter in colour and taste than the Red Wheat and makes wonderful high loaves of bread.  The white wheat has all the same nutritional content as the Hard Red wheat as well.  The Hard White Wheat is an alkaline based grain like barley and will not produce gas in the intestines.  If you have problems with gas or bloating after eating Hard Red wheat, try changing to the Hard White Wheat and those problems will be less or completely disappear. 

Beat Oxidation! In whole-grain foods, the plant's cellular walls protect nutrients from oxidation. The process of oxidation begins to occur as soon as grain is ground, exposing the cell's contents to oxygen in the air. Flour that is several days (or more) old, has been exposed to oxygen that inevitably diminishes its nutritional value. The way to get full nutrition from whole grain foods is to mill them when you need them, right in your kitchen. Modern high-speed grain mills make it fast and easy to enjoy the freshest, best tasting and most nutritious food imaginable!

Convenient & safe storage:  When you store grain at home, it needs to be protected in a couple of ways. First, it needs to be protected from a variety of little critters who'd like to get to it before you do. Weevils, for example. And isn't this interesting: Chances are you've never seen weevils in the white bread or crackers you bought from the store. That's because weevils put no stock in media campaigns from white-flour milling conglomerates; rather, they know what's good for them, and they'd come after your grain from miles around if you let them. And mice have good nutritional judgment, too. Not that there's ever been a mouse in your house, but if there was... you wouldn't want it having access to your grain. Secondly, grain needs to be kept dry. The grain we sell is all dried to a very low moisture level that's optimal for storage and baking and guarantees that you get the most grain for your money. You need to protect your grain from picking up excessive additional moisture, which can be drawn from the atmosphere. Never store grain directly on a cement flour, either in bags or buckets.  The grain will pull the moisture out of the flour and get moldy and not keep as long.  You can put pallets or 2'x4''s on the flour under the grain.  The buckets or metal garbage cans with a tight fitting lid offer protection against storage risks.  A Dessicant or an O2 absorber can be added to the buckets to eat the oxygen but the dry ice method mentioned above also works great.  Always keep grains in a cool and dry area of your home.