Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Spelt or Wheat? What do I Store?

I had a comment from a new friend wanting clarification. I think it was a great comment. And one that needs some plain, well, clarification.

Question:
Does spelt replace wheat? Or do you store them both? Any info would be great!

Answer:
Spelt can replace wheat. If you have allergies to wheat, and spelt is an option, substitute recommended wheat quantities with spelt.
If you just like spelt and can also eat wheat, then you can do what I do - store both. I really like how spelt bakes and how it makes my bread lighter and nicer. So, I love to store it, however, I inherited quite a bit of hard red wheat from one aunt and my mother-in-law, so I usually end up using both red wheat and spelt in my recipes, just to keep up with my rotation of foods. I prefer to mix them now, I dislike eating the red wheat alone in my recipes - the spelt makes the taste so much better!

Here is another thought:
Spelt has the appearance of wheat. They look quite similar. Spelt looks a little more plump than my hard red wheat, and since they are cousins, that is a good thing.

Can you tell which is spelt and which is hard red wheat?

3 comments:

Erin said...

I don't know which one is which. But I've never seen either one up close and personal either. I have a couple of questions, and maybe you have answered them and I missed them earlier. Is spelt an acquired taste? Like does it have a nuttier flavor than regular wheat flour? And can you grind spelt in a wheat grinder and make flour just like you can make regular flour? Thanks for your help!

Jodi said...

Thank you so so much for the info. I am going to guess that spelt is on the right in this picture. Although I'm probably wrong ;) It's great to know that there is an alternative to wheat, and when I get my wheat grinder I'm going to have to try using both in recipes and see what I like better.

Jamie said...

By the way, spelt is on the right, so Jodi is right!

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