Wheat Flour Wheat Straw Wheat Granite

Product DescriptionWheat is a type of grass grown all over the world for its highly nutritious and useful grain. It is one of the top three most produced crops in the world, along with corn and rice. Wheat has been cultivated for over 10,000 years and probably originates in the Fertile Crescent, along with other staple crops. A wide range of wheat products are made by humans, including most famously flour, which is made from the grain itself.

Detailed ImagesUsesHard wheats contain more protein (11 to 18 percent) than soft wheats (8 to 11 percent). Hard wheats also contain more gluten. Hard Red Winter Wheat and Hard Red Spring Wheat produce a high-grade flour used to make bread, hamburger buns and biscuits. Soft wheat produces a flour that is desirable for baked goods that have a tender, flaky or crisp texture, like cakes, doughnuts, cookies and crackers. White wheat is a soft wheat that produces flour used for cereals, cookies and cakes. Durum -- which contains more protein than any other class -- produces a coarse, golden amber product called semolina that is mixed with water to form a dough that then is forced through dies that shape it into pasta products like spaghetti, noodles and macaroni.