What unripe grains are used in cooking?

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SUMMARY

Unripe grains, particularly unripe wheat known as freekeh, are utilized in cooking for their unique taste and texture. Other unripe grains mentioned include green peas and various types of beans. The advantages of using ripe grains include higher nutritional value, mechanical stability, and longer storage life, as ripe grains can be stored for extended periods without fermentation. Harvesting grains before they ripen is economically inefficient and complicates the extraction of energy and nutrition.

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TL;DR
What unripe grains are used in cooking besides unripe wheat (freekeh)? What is the advantage in letting grains ripen?
According to the internet, unripe wheat (freekeh) is used in cooking. What other unripe grains can be used? What are the advantages of using ripe grains as opposed to unripe ones? - i.e. why is using unripe grains less common?
 
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Stephen Tashi said:
Summary:: What unripe grains are used in cooking besides unripe wheat (freekeh)? What is the advantage in letting grains ripen?
Mechanical stability, abrasion resistance; storing free-flowing granular materials rather than mush enhances storage life by orders of magnitude.
 
Ripe ones have the highest nutritional value - after all, they are mostly containers for storing resources necessary for germination.
 
Corn?
Once it's ripe, it's just for another type of flour.
 
Plants evolved to scatter their seed in the environment close to where they grew. Animals may then spread some seed further. The commercial crops grown today have been selected to hold their seed. That makes it possible to harvest and handle the crop before it is threshed.

The final maturation of the seed involves a significant increase in food value, while the water content is reduced. Ripe grain protected from vermin, can be stored for long periods. It can provide out-of-season food, and seed to be sown for another crop next year.

Harvesting a grain for consumption before it is ripe is an uneconomic and inefficient practice. It will require a special process to extract the energy and nutrition, while it precludes saving the seed for next year's crop.

Damp grain cannot be stored because it will ferment, and generates sufficient heat to burn the grain. To preserve it, you would have to pickle it in vinegar.
 
Baluncore said:
Harvesting a grain for consumption before it is ripe is an uneconomic and inefficient practice.

That's definitely true, but that just makes their use as a staple food non-economic, they can still have an interesting taste or texture. Things like green pea or corn.
 
Borek said:
...green pea...
Beans, of various kind too :wink:

Stephen Tashi said:
What are the advantages of using ripe grains as opposed to unripe ones?
On the other side: the cooking process might be shorter, and so more nutrients may be preserved.
 
Last edited:

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