Durum

Durum is wheat, but it is not the wheat that becomes ordinary white flour. Wheat is the broader plant; durum is one class within it.

U.S. flour identity is explicit. Flour (white flour, wheat flour) is ground and bolted from cleaned wheat other than durum wheat and red durum wheat ¹. Durum flour is ground and bolted from cleaned durum wheat: not less than 98 percent passes a No. 70 sieve, ash not more than 1.5 percent on a moisture-free basis, moisture not more than 15 percent ¹. Semolina is also cleaned durum wheat, but coarser: through a No. 20 sieve, not more than 3 percent through a No. 100, ash not more than 0.92 percent moisture-free ¹. Whole durum flour follows whole wheat flour’s identity except that durum wheat is the grain.

Baking and pasta. Durum’s mill streams are a Milling choice. They still have to become Gluten in the presence of water and work, but they are not a drop-in bag for Wheat flour in a country loaf. Application: Baking for bread; pasta is a different craft that often wants semolina.

What to notice. Durum products often look more yellow than soft-wheat flour. That is the grain, not egg. Feel is granular in semolina, powdery in durum flour.

Do not call a bag “durum” because the pasta marketing said so. Read the identity.