Kamut

Khorasan wheat is a tall annual grass resembling modern wheat but with longer heads and narrow, pointed kernels. The grains are roughly two to three times the size of common wheat, amber in colour, with a slight hump on the back that earned it the nickname camel's tooth. Cooked whole, the berries are chewy and plump, with a naturally sweet, buttery and nutty flavour. Kamut is the registered trademark of a brand of Khorasan wheat that is organically grown and never hybridised or modified. The grain is sold as whole berries, cracked grain, flakes, flour, pasta, puffed cereal and crackers. It is a hulled-threshing type, so the kernels separate easily from the chaff when harvested, and it is higher in protein than most common wheats.

Khorasan wheat is a tetraploid wheat related to durum and emmer, and its name refers to Khorasan, a historical region spanning parts of present-day Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia. Its exact origin is uncertain, but it is a cultivated wheat that has been grown in the Near East and surrounding regions for a very long time. The trade name Kamut was chosen in the 1980s by a Montana farming family, and is said to come from an ancient Egyptian word for wheat. According to the commonly told story, a small number of kernels were brought to the United States in the 1940s, then multiplied by farmers in Montana decades later. The botanical name Triticum turanicum points to Turan, another Central Asian association.

Grains of this type are associated with farming across the Fertile Crescent, Egypt and Central Asia, but there is little firm documentary evidence of its early history, and stories linking it to pharaonic tombs are considered legend rather than fact. Khorasan wheat remained a minor crop in regions of Turkey, Iran, Egypt and Afghanistan for centuries. In 1949 a United States airman reportedly sent a handful of grains from Egypt to his father in Montana, who planted them and sold them as a curiosity called King Tut's wheat. In 1977 the Quinn family began working to revive and market the grain, and in 1990 they registered the Kamut trademark to guarantee quality and preserve its identity. Since then it has become a popular specialty grain in health-food shops in North America, Europe and Japan, with growing areas in the northern Great Plains of the United States, Canada, and parts of Europe. Because the brand is licensed, only grain that meets its organic and varietal standards can be sold under the name.

Whole Kamut berries are soaked or simmered for about an hour until tender, then used in salads, pilafs, soups and breakfast porridges. The flour makes breads, flatbreads, muffins and pancakes with a rich colour and slightly sweet flavour, and it is often combined with other flours because its gluten is extensible but less strong than that of modern bread wheat. Kamut pasta is common in natural-food stores. Flakes can be cooked like oatmeal, and puffed Kamut is used in cereals and snack bars. The grain is also sprouted and milled for sprouted flour products.

Kamut is a whole grain and provides protein, fibre, zinc, magnesium, selenium and B vitamins. Some small studies suggest that replacing modern wheat products with Khorasan wheat products may modestly improve certain markers such as cholesterol or inflammation, but the trials are short and limited in size, and the results should be treated as preliminary. Like other whole grains, it fits well into diets associated with lower cardiovascular risk. Some people report it as easier to digest than common wheat, but this has not been established.