The mother of durum wheat (the go-to wheat for semolina pasta in the Western world), ancient emmer dates to the dawn of domesticated agriculture. Emmer has been present in many civilizations because it is miraculously robust in its tolerance for heat, cold, disease, and weed pressure, and is capable of producing grains with amazing flavor diversity. Like durum, ancient emmer mills to a fine beach-sand consistency rather than to flour. In modern times, industrial roller milling processes have come to define semolina characteristics: the bran layer is rolled off; the germ, rich in oil and flavor, is stripped away; and the result is a very fine and golden-hued product (golden from carotene in the durum), consisting of pure starch endosperm. Modern semolina is beautiful to look at, beautiful to work with, but short on flavor compared to ours. Everything we do at Anson Mills is strictly pre-industrial, and this applies doubly to our Ancient Emmer Semolina hand-processing: multiple cold passes through our stone mills and rounds of hand-bolting produce even-sized fine emmer semolina that is nearly 100% whole grain. (By modern definition, there is no such thing as whole grain semolina.) Our Ancient Emmer Semolina captures your taste buds and satisfies your stomach no matter how it is prepared—as porridge, in breads, made into pasta and gnocchi. It presents a bold blend of field harvest verdancy and complex spiciness.