Boiled wheat is perfectly edible, actually.
Anon thinks about wheat
Submitted 2 days ago by Early_To_Risa@sh.itjust.works to greentext@sh.itjust.works
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Comments
rumschlumpel@feddit.org 2 days ago
thebestaquaman@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Significant point: “Edible” is subject to discussion. Not more than 100 years ago, the expected diet in large parts of Norway was boiled fish, boiled potatoes, and some form of boiled grain. For every meal. Your entire life. Vitamins? Go chew on that shrub until the scurvy goes away.
porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml 2 days ago
I doubt it. In winter maybe. But given the extreme abundance of wild berries in the summer I’m pretty sure people ate a lot of them.
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 2 days ago
boiled fish, boiled potatoes, and some form of boiled grain
tbf that sounds amazing
GorGor@startrek.website 2 days ago
Beef barley soup is delicious
Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
You can absolutely make barley bread. It just won’t be very fluffy or rise, since there’s no gluten in it.
SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social 2 days ago
There most certainly is gluten in barley! Breweries don’t just add gluten to beer just to be dicks to people with celiac disease.
rumschlumpel@feddit.org 2 days ago
That … doesn’t sound like bread to me.
MurrayL@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I’ve got a pack of pearl barley in the cupboard right now; it’s delicious.
Hellstormy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
Same, I also regularly make meals with pearl barley, it’s absolutely great as a noodles/rice replacement or salad ingredient
MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
Called porrige.
Dojan@pawb.social 2 days ago
It being tasty or not is entirely subjective. I’m a big fan of boiled wheat. The texture is fantastic.
SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 days ago
It’s so substantial, even chewy. I love oat groats for this too.
rumschlumpel@feddit.org 2 days ago
Is this a dish that your parents made for you when you were a child?
adminofoz@lemmy.cafe 2 days ago
Be hooman, eat much seed. Seed good. Wheat like seed. Wheat good. Rock smash seed, easy eat seed.
Rain make no work. Rain make smash seed taste funny. Fire make rain smash seed tastey. Society.
MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
Historical giggling intensifies.
buddascrayon@lemmy.world 2 days ago
The number of people who have no clue how much processing goes into making rice edible is hilarious.
tehn00bi@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Or just to grow it. Rice is stupid hard compared to wheat.
Digestive_Biscuit@feddit.uk 1 day ago
As well as regional factors. They both grow in totally different environments.
MisterNeon@lemmy.world 2 days ago
AngryishHumanoid@lemmy.world 2 days ago
WHAT UP MOTHER SHUCKERS
YellowParenti@lemmy.wtf 2 days ago
MisterNeon@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I love amongst yankees now. I’d even take some huitlacoche.
RickyRigatoni@retrolemmy.com 2 days ago
Devil crop.
bryophile@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
You can boil wheat too. Ancient peoples used to make porridge
grue@lemmy.world 2 days ago
And by “porridge” you mean “beer”.
Booze was the real motivator.
Agent641@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Guy: look at all this wheat I grew!
Fella; Wow, we could make so many bread!
Guy: Yes… Ah… Bread
SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 days ago
Thank you! I was looking for this comment before posting about it. Almost every grain can be cooked in large amounts of boiling water, like pasta.
felixwhynot@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Anon is not thinking enough about beer
TootSweet@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Counterpoint: sake.
MartianSands@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
I don’t think sake could serve the role beer did, historically. Certainly in medieval Europe, they made what today would be considered a weak beer yo drink for basic hydration. That was by far the easiest way for them to ensure the water was safe to drink.
I’m pretty sure if you tried that with sake, you’d die
kandoh@reddthat.com 2 days ago
One guy can grow and harvest a wheat field large enough to feed his family, but rice requires a lot of community organization to grow.
HeadyBroccoli@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
There’s an interesting hypothesis called the Rice Hypothesis that theorizes that the different styles of farming rice vs wheat shaped our societies in ways that are still prevalent today. Farming rice led to strong collectivism in society, while farming wheat led to strong individualism in society. Perhaps this is what has led to our differences in ideologies and governing systems.
WoodScientist@lemmy.world 2 days ago
All grass based crops encouraged group cooperation. Plants like potatoes remain safe in the ground until you need them. But all cereal crops require harvesting at a specific time. You can’t just harvest enough wheat as you need it. This means you inevitably have to have a stockpile of grain to get through the year. And a stockpile of already harvested and prepared grain makes you an instant target for raids by opposing groups.
Cereal crops of all forms necessitate cooperation.
kandoh@reddthat.com 1 day ago
I also like the one where western people are good at stuff like telescopes and magnifying lenses because they drink wine, which is a pretty color, where as the Chinese drank clear alcohol so they didn’t get as good with glasswork
WalterLego@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
Fascinating theory. I’ll have to go down that rabbit hole tomorrow.
OshagHennessey@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Also, a very different climate and soil.
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 2 days ago
Wheat doesn’t actually require all that much. Soak it in water, and it becomes gruel. Let gruel sit around for awhile, the liquid becomes a rudimentary ale. Boil off the liquid, you have a rudimentary bread. Want to make it easier to eat? Grind it before you add the water.
Every other use is an evolution of those basic concepts.
BurnedDonutHole@ani.social 2 days ago
You can’t grow rice where there isn’t a proper water supply so much so that your field is basically a swamp until it’s time to harvest. Meanwhile wheat and barley doesn’t need much water to cultivate.
Nighed@feddit.uk 2 days ago
I don’t think rice requires water? It just tolerates it fine, so it’s useful for pest/weed control?
ICastFist@programming.dev 2 days ago
You’re thinking of something else, rice requires the land it’s planted on to be under some centimeters of water. Just look for any image of a rice field. Only when it’s ready to harvest that the field can be drier
MehBlah@lemmy.world 2 days ago
It requires water but not the same stagnant levels it used to. Modern cultivation is done with a series of inter connected Levees that allow the water to flow at lower levels than it used to be grown in.
thethunderwolf@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
Rice does not require that water, it’s just that it can survive it, unlike most weeds.
OshagHennessey@lemmy.world 2 days ago
It’s pretty simple, really. Rice doesn’t grow everywhere.
rmuk@feddit.uk 2 days ago
Can confirm. I’m currently at Tim Horton’s and there’s no rice growing.
Jarix@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Is the Tragically Hip song Wheat Kings playing though?
OshagHennessey@lemmy.world 1 day ago
But there is bread available, isn’t there? I rest my case.
Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Rice needs just as much processing. So you think the rice you buy in the store is what it’s like in the field?
FinjaminPoach@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I always heard it needs more, which is why East Asian societies -notably China - achieved big cities early on and a more collective philosophy, whereas Europe ended up having a more individualist philosophy.
robocall@lemmy.world 2 days ago
In California, native Americans made acorn porridge. They collected the acorns, shelled and roasted them, ground it into a flour, then leached it because it’s full of bitter tannins, and then they can cook the leached acorn meal into a porridge. It is crazy and multiple steps to get there. Mind blowing stuff.
rumschlumpel@feddit.org 2 days ago
Preparing a meal is a super involved process, but getting the acorns should be extremely easy compared to farming grain.
Routhinator@startrek.website 2 days ago
When you are hungry and have had to resort to a less desirable food source, the time for research and development becomes available.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Yeah you start by trying to eat the stuff that seems like it could be food because you need food, then once you get it edible (using the basic techniques), then you can focus on trying to make it palatable.
sepiroth154@feddit.nl 2 days ago
Chaffing it, and then grinding it and adding water aren’t exactly rocket science. Also you didn’t have any smartphones to keep you from being bored.
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 2 days ago
This phenomenon is even stronger with Maize. It requires heavy processing to be turned into glucose sirup or anything resembling edible food. By default, the grains are extremely durable and very difficult to digest.
But this is essentially what protects it from insects and fungus. Because the grains are so hard to digest by default, they can only be eaten by humans who have the tools to heavily process them before eating; for everyone else it’s essentially uninteresting as a food source and that prevents mold and insects.
Taldan@lemmy.world 2 days ago
What type of corn are you referring to? I’m not familiar with the history of corn, but what you’re saying doesn’t match my experiences with any variety
Dent corn is used as livestock feed, and is generally considered the less edible version. Sweet corn can be eaten by humans raw. Basically every variety I’ve ever seen can be eaten if boiled long enough
TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Sweet corn is a mutation that was only really cultivated in the late 1700s. Before that dent and flint corn were the norm. These corns require nixtamalization to soft the corn and then need boiling, grinding, and cooking to make something like tortillas.
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 2 days ago
mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
Have you not heard of corn on the cob? Just pull off the husk, boil, and eat.
TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I can’t tell if this is in jest or ignorance.
exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
Sweet corn is a recent invention.
And great, you’ve got the months of July and August covered. How are you going to survive fall, winter, and spring? Corn doesn’t become a staple crop until it can be stored year round, maybe between years to alleviate famine.
ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
Corn (Maize) is a selected grass. (Teosinte) Wheat is also a grass (Emmer) which hasn’t been nearly as modified.
The american indigenous people cultivated and developed corn over 10,000 some years. An ear of corn can be boiled and eaten. Wheat? Not so much.
rumba@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
We have tried to grind, dry, ferment, bake, broil, boil, and fry everything on the face of the earth. Countless times. Humans have had the same brainpower for ages, just not the same knowledge base.
wheat makes beer beer yeast and wheat makes bread wheat made pasta wheat grows well in colder climates.
Triasha@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Wheat is a bit of a weed so it’s grown on more marginal land while more profitable (finicky) plants are grown in the better land.
This weirdly makes wheat more vulnerable to climate change.
plyth@feddit.org 1 day ago
Because they wiped their ass with a communal sponge.
The shared gut bacteria provide the micronutrients that are needed to develop the intelligence that can handle the complexity.
OP needs to get topped more to compensate.
MintyFresh@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Wheat is a more modern staple than you might imagine. Millet was more widespread than rice or wheat for much of Eurasia.
Bosht@lemmy.world 1 day ago
The ignorance around rice is what gets me on this one. It’s almost troll level.
Trigger2_2000@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
You can eat wheat right out of the head (the top part of the wheat stalk). No processing required (other than threshing it - removing it from the husk).
Pat_Riot@lemmy.today 2 days ago
Rice makes terrible bread. Grind me up some more of that fancy grass please.
gnuplusmatt@reddthat.com 2 days ago
wheat is overrated, I can’t even eat it with out shitting myself and eventually developing cancer. Its because my genes are too evolved to eat it or something
echodot@feddit.uk 2 days ago
I often wondered this about potatoes. Wild potatoes are extremely poisonous, so who went, the last time we ate one of those we all got sick and a few people died.
Let’s cultivate them. I’m sure in just a few thousand years we can turn it into something useful. Of course until then it’s kind of just wasted effort but our children’s children’s children’s children’s children’s children’s children’s children’s children’s children will thank us.
corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
who’s
whose
Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 2 days ago
If the only thing you can find to eat requires all the processing wheat does, you figure it out. Then people noticed how versatile flour is.
A sponge is good enough. But most leaves will do. The need for a clean ass is less pressing than gnawing insistent hunger.
TheFerrango@lemmings.world 1 day ago
The communal sponge is peak hygiene, stop dissing it
Cruxifux@feddit.nl 2 days ago
Yeah I think about this a lot. How tf did they figure out wheat on such a massive scale for bread?
AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 2 days ago
There was a theory that wheat contains a chemical that makes people more docile and accepting of hierarchy, and that a wheat-based diet allowed for large-scale hierarchical societies with taxation, conscription, inequality and division of labour to exist
DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It’s learned over time. I expect what we learned from easier-to-process roots was applied to grains.
frog@feddit.uk 2 days ago
Wheat is easier to grow and requires less water. The first farmers in the Middle East became farmers almost acidentally. When they transported the wheat, the dropped crop started growing more and closer to where they were processing it. Eventually some of them decided they would rather grow the wheat than being part of a nomadic tribe. This will eventually lead to a population boom where women would have children every year rather than every four years.
GorGor@startrek.website 2 days ago
Also more protein in wheat compared to rice. Actually a lot more nutrients in wheat compared to rice.
Cruxifux@feddit.nl 2 days ago
Ok great but how did they figure out you could EAT IT if you did a shitload of seemingly random shit to it that you don’t have to do with, like, any other crop?
BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
Sounds like you’re assuming step 1 of eating it was processing it into bread. Beyond that, ancient people eventually tried to eat everything. Seeds, grains, and nuts were not uncommon.
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 2 days ago
You don’t have to do all of that to eat it, you just have to do all of that to make bread. You can make bread from oats, you can also process it less and make porridge.
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 2 days ago
All you need to do to make wheat edible is soak it in water to make it soft enough to chew. Wheat in water is “gruel”.
You can improve upon it by boiling, which will dehydrate the gruel into a primitive bread. The drained, starchy liquid, if left to sit for awhile, will become a primitive ale. Grinding makes it easier to eat.
Every dietary use is an evolutionary progression from soaking wheat in water.
Monument@lemmy.sdf.org 2 days ago
Are you saying wheat domesticated early man?
OshagHennessey@lemmy.world 2 days ago
It’s more accurate to say all plants have always domesticated humans. We came after them, we depend on them to survive, we’re required to consume their waste to live, so we can’t live without them. They, however, have the option of consuming our waste to live, but are perfectly capable of living without us, and will likely continue to do so after we’re extinct.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world 2 days ago
It’s not a novel observation
degen@midwest.social 2 days ago
Does this mean we were conned into domesticating cats?