A variety of maize, the starchy interior of which cooks and swells when heated, the pressure eventually bursting the kernel and turning it inside-out. Typically the light crisp puffy white kernels are salted and eaten as a snack.
Cornmeal Ground dried maize (corn) kernels, termed cornmeal in the UK and cornflour in the USA. It may be fine or coarse in texture, depending on the milling, and yellow, white or blue, depending upon the variety of maize, blue being softer and less starchy.
Cornflour A fine powder made from the ground endosperm of maize kernels, known as cornflour in the UK and cornstarch in the USA. Almost pure starch, and containing no lump-forming gluten, it is mainly used as a thickening agent. Virtually flavourless.
Polenta Cornmeal, fine or coarse, yellow or white. A staple of N. Italy, it is traditionally boiled with water to make a thick porridge, and either served warm, or cooled then fried, grilled or baked.
Rye and Barley
Rye flour Milled from a hardy cereal grass, rye flour is historically the bread-making staple of northern Europe and Nordic regions and is the defining ingredient in pumpernickel, black bread and crispbread. With a faintly bitter flavour, it is grey in colour, either light or dark according to the amount of bran remaining. Because rye is low in gluten, breads made from only rye flour are dense. A moisture-trapping gum in the grain gives rye doughs a characteristic stickiness and keeps the bread moist.
Rye flakes Flakes formed by flattening whole rye grains between rollers. Also called rolled rye, the flakes are cooked as a breakfast porridge or toasted and added to commercial breakfast cereals. Due to their unusual configuration, the sugars in rye break down very slowly to simple sugar and thus take a long time to digest, effectively reducing appetite.
Pearl barley Barley grains with their husks and pellicles (outer layers) removed, then steamed and polished until round and shiny. Pearl barley, the most common form, is used to thicken stews and soups, notably Scotch broth, and has little taste of its own. Pot barley, which has had some of the bran removed, requires long cooking to soften it.
Barley flakes The flakes produced by flattening whole grains of barley, outer husks removed, between rollers. Used to make milk puddings, porridge and added to breakfast cereals such as muesli, they have a distinct flavour and are slightly chewy. Flakes may be softened by soaking before being used in baked products.
Barley flour Ground and powdered pearl barley. Because barley contains little gluten, leavened breads made with only barley flour are dense and heavy. Most barley breads are unleavened griddle breads. For leavened breads, barley flour is best mixed with wheat flour. Lacking the water-retaining properties of the gluten network, barley bread goes stale quickly. Barley meal is a wholemeal flour that is coarsely ground from hulled barley.
Wheat
Whole-wheat flour Milled from the entire wheat kernel, whole-wheat flour contains all of the grain’s bran, germ and endosperm. Also known as wholemeal and, in the USA, graham flour, it is used for baking and general cooking. In unbaked doughs the fibrous bran pierces the gluten network, damaging its structure. Thus breads and cakes made with whole-wheat, rather than refined, flour rise less and bake to a closer texture.
Wheat flakes The large, thick, firm flakes produced when whole-wheat kernels are steamed, then flattened between rollers. Because the flakes retain the bran and germ, most of the kernel’s nutrition remains, although the oils in the germ rapidly become rancid. Also called rolled wheat, the flakes, like rolled oats, are cooked as porridge or added to baked goods.
Wheat germ The small flakes milled from the embryo, or germ, which is separated from the wheat grain during the milling of white flour. Rich in nutrients, it is added to baked goods and breakfast cereals, or sprinkled over dishes, adding a nutty flavour. Because the germ’s high oil content causes it rapidly to become rancid, it should be stored airtight, and chilled.
Unbleached wheat flour Creamy coloured flour which has not undergone an artificial bleaching process. As it ages, wheat flour naturally bleaches from the oxygen in the air, resulting not only in bread with a whiter crumb but also a greater volume, plus a finer, softer crumb. Bleached flour is treated with oxidizing agents to simulate this process, albeit more quickly.
Wheatmeal Wheat flour containing 80 to 90 percent of the whole grain, the bulk of the bran being removed in milling but much of the germ remaining. In colour, flavour, baking and keeping qualities, it falls midway between wholewheat and white flours. Wheatmeal is also known as brown flour.
White flour A fine powder, ground principally from the starchy endosperm of the wheat grain, with almost all the bran and germ removed during milling. For baking, flour is distinguished by degrees of hardness; the harder the flour the more gluten-forming proteins it contains. Thus hard flour, called strong flour in the UK, and bread flour or hard flour in the USA, is better for yeast-raised products, while weaker, soft flour, called plain or all-purpose flour in the UK, and cake flour or soft flour in the USA, being more able to absorb fat, is better for cakes and short pastry.
Wheat bran Flakes, fine or coarse, of the fibrous outer layer of the wheat grain, separated during milling. Consisting mostly of indigestible cellulose, bran is consumed for the health benefits of roughage. However, its consumption does have a negative effect. The fibre renders bran’s high concentrations of minerals and vitamins digestively unavailable and its phytic acid impairs the absorption of calcium. Bran is sprinkled over fruit, or added to breakfast cereals, and baked goods such as breads, biscuits and muffins.
Wheat-based grains
Cracked wheat Whole-wheat grains broken into coarse, medium