Saturday, January 9, 2010

Discovering kamut


When I went to the Great Harvest Bread Company yesterday on my way back from the gym to catch the bus, they had a new kind of grain for me to sample: kamut (pronounced ka-moot'). Mishearing the unfamiliar word, I said, "What? Camus bread, named after the French philosopher?" I was informed that kamut is a new grain and our local GHBC is experimenting with it. Of course I had to go right to the internet and find out what it was I was eating.

It turns out that kamut has a very interesting story. It is a big fat humpbacked kernel, as you can see from the picture, related to durum wheat. I learned from an informative Purdue website that the name is trademarked by a Montana wheat farmer named T. Mack Quinn. The name comes from the ancient Egyptian word for wheat. And what a story it has:
Following WWII, a US airman claimed to have taken a handful of this grain from a stone box in a tomb near Dashare, Egypt. Thirty-six kernels of the grain were given to a friend who mailed them to his father, a Montana wheat farmer. The farmer planted and harvested a small crop and displayed the grain as a novelty at the local fair. Believing the legend that the giant grain kernels were taken from an Egyptian tomb, the grain was dubbed "King Tut's Wheat." But soon the novelty wore off and this ancient grain was all but forgotten.
But leave it to time and the desire to promote sustainable agriculture for this grain to come back. And then some: it's very sweet tasting, with superior qualities, such as containing up to 65% more amino acids and more lipids and fatty acids than regular wheat. The most striking superiority is its protein level: more than 40% higher than the national average for wheat. How it came back into the mainstream is also very interesting (also from the Purdue website):
In 1977, one remaining jar of "King Tut's Wheat" was obtained by T. Mack Quinn, who with his son Bob, an agricultural scientist and plant biochemist, soon perceived the value of this unique grain. They spent the next decade propagating the humped-backed kernels originally selected from the small jar. Their research revealed that wheats of this type originated in the fertile crescent area which runs from Egypt to the Tigris-Euphrates valley.
If you read the Purdue link in full, you'll find that scientists don't agree at all about where it originated, but it sure tastes good, I can vouch for that. And with all that other good stuff, it is also resistant to pests so needs little to no pesticides and fertilizers. It's easily grown by organic farmers, so I'm an instant fan. It should become more and more popular as the word gets out.
:-)

14 comments:

  1. That is interesting DJan – I’ll keep an eye out to see if I can buy some of this grain and use it in my bread making machine. Is it good toasted? I have so much homemade jam that our breakfast is usually a big bowl of coffee each and a couple of pieces of toast with my jam.

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  2. Wow, DJ!!!! That sounds fabulous!!!! I'm going to be on the look out for it!!!! I wonder if its properties are similar to Spelt? Definitely going to have to look into this!!! Thank you for giving us the head's up!!! You are such a wealth of wisdom!!! Love you, Janine XO

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  3. Interesting information. I have never heard of it before. It would be worth a try. I will check out the Purdue link.

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  4. Glad you like KAMUT khorasan wheat. I work for the Quinn's...in fact I married TM's Quinn's grandson, Trevor, who is now the CEO of Kamut International. Please check out www.kamut.com for tons of information, recipes, nutritional info etc. There is a lot of confusion out there, but hopefully our website helps clear that up! If you see the "KAMUT" name it comes from our program and is ONLY grown on certified organic farms. Anyone can grow and sell khorasan wheat, but when our trademark comes to play, we test every field for quality! Hope this info helps and HAPPY NEW YEAR!--Tara Blyth

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  5. You can buy it online in several forms. I used to buy Kamut Flakes cereal at an upscale grocery store; it's probably carried at some of the Whole Foods-type stores, too. I'd forgotten about it. If anyone develops a bread recipe you like, I'd love to know about it!

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  6. You are going to live a gazillion years with all that healthy health food! How am I going to read your Blog if you outlive me? Does this mean I too have to eat forty two grain everything instead of all my red meat? Bah! When I'm gone, I'll miss you!

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  7. Good information DJan. I have seen the brand name in some Bob's Red Mill products and also Arrowhead cereals. I tried one of the cereals a while back and it was good. I will have to look for it again.
    Judy

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  8. Hi DJ, I will have to be on the look-out for this. My husband prefers me to buy as much healthy and natural foods as I can. It's hard sometimes here in our little town in the middle of nowhere.

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  9. I love Great Harvest. My husband makes his own bread so we'll have to see if he can get flour from this grain. Bob's Red Mill in Portland has most flours or grains - I'll check out their website. Thanks for the info!

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  10. Those grains look huge! I wonder what it tastes like and if we have anything like it over here? I will have to take a look in the bread shop next time. We have a lot of Italian bread in my neighbourhood.
    Blessings, Star

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  11. Very interesting! Since I have been bad all my life eating the white stuff, I have been trying to introduce more whole wheat products into my diet...so I will be interested to see if more and more products start using this grain...

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  12. It seems that healthy is finally becoming more mainstream. I know we are certainly undergoing an overhaul of our own so this is informative. Thanks for the heads up!

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