The Food Issue
2015
Grains
West
22
Feature
By Cullen Bird
Illustrations by Davide Bonazzi
Gluten hasmade its way into our every-
day life. It’s right upwith therewith
breathing, selfies and saying “literally.”
Gluten is a combination of proteins
commonly found inwheat, barley and
rye, and it’s “literally” been around
longer than any of us.
Gluten is fairly ubiquitous in our daily
lives. Frommascara to salad dressing, it’s
hard to escape gluten. Youmay frequent-
ly interact with gluten in your daily life
without even knowing it. Despite being
originally limited to bread products, glu-
ten has a surprising number of uses in the
modern food industry. To understand its
present role as a food additive, it helps to
trace its history.
WHAT ISGLUTEN?
1) Gluten is the combination of proteins
found naturally inwheat, barley and rye:
gliadin and glutenin.
2)When flour ismixedwithwater and
kneaded into dough, the gliadin and glu-
tenin proteins combine.
3) Together, they formgluten, a protein
compound known for its elasticity and
strength.
Gluten can bemade from the
glutenin and gliadin proteins
found inwheat and barley flour.
Glutenwas traditionally eaten as
part of the productsmadewith
these grains.
Before the use of steel rollers in
the late 19th century, wheat grown
in Canadawas ground in stone
mills.With stonemilling, wheat is
ground between two large circu-
lar stones. The top stone is rotated
while the bottomstone remains
still.Wheat is poured through
a hole in the top stone, and the
ground flour is pushed out from
the edges of the two stones.
Gluten gives bread its
chewiness. It also traps car-
bon dioxide in the dough
during yeast fermentation,
which helpsmake the bread
light and fluffy. The strong-
est gluten (like that found in
durumwheat) is used tomake
pasta. Other types of gluten
are found in a range of bread
products.
A hundred years ago, glutenwas eaten as an ingredient in
bread, muffins, bagels and pasta.
