Vitamin D Critical To Health

Semolina, if so named on a US package, is not the whole nub of wheat that you can get in major whole grains - but it is unbleached.

Anyone know what buckwheat is, besides the coastal shrub in California? (forget the latin name, think it starts with e..)

Whole grain keeps the outside shell on the during the grinding process, much like brown rice or white rice. Bleaching takes the naked grain or natural grain without the shell and makes it whiter.
The same is done with whole grain, but whole grain is generally a misnomer too. Most breads or pasta that are brown or whole grain have white flour mixed in 50/50 otherwise it doesn't rise well.
Pasta is generally yellow because of the eggs not the flour.

I'll posit that something that is done in the US processing of the grain (lets just say Ceili is completely right that unbleached and bleached start as semolina), though the divergence is confusing since plain old non processed much semolina is very different than "unbleached flour" here. It simply is grainier/yellower, far far less fluffy.
Anyway, I posit that the some of the same processes affect even "whole wheat" here in the US.
Processes on "whole grain", maybe those are curbed somewhat. I did like that buckwheat.

On buckwheat, I think the buckwheat in bags in the stores is different than this - I was remembering Eriogonum fasciculatum, and do have a friend that cooked with that though I don't remember the results (but, I'm still here).
http://www.laspilitas.com/groups/buckwheat/california_buckwheat.html


Not sure if these buckwheat relatives are what we generally call buckwheat.

Off to look some more.

There the is the spinach, carrot and beet pastas are they just bleached pasta with additives?

Something is kind of confusing here "American pasta" is usually Prince Brand or Generic.
Here are the ingredients for Prince Brand pasta,
Semolina (Wheat)Durum Flour (Wheat)Niacin; Iron (Ferrous Sulfate)Thiamin Mononitrate; Riboflavin; Folic Acid.

Why does it include the word Semolina?

There is different color to the flours, Ceili, and untreated semolina is yellowish, or perhaps faint mustard.

Pasta being yellow re eggs is a red herring. Egg pasta may well be, but non egg (purchased dried) pasta has nothing to do with that.

I think egg noodles are the only pastas that contain eggs.

I tend to believe that semolina is bleached also or they would not need to fortify/enrich it.

No, you can't assume that - depends on who is making the pasta.

Purchased dried pasta can be totally duram semolina or some mix that I don't know about. Itals tend to be all semolina in the sense I'm talking about it, coarse grainy hard stuff.

Fresh pasta is often made with unbleached packaged flour, although more people are fooling with some coarse semolina and with things like buckwheat (and beets, whatever). I don't know many purist people who are keen on spinach, beet, etc. pasta, I take that as a commercial thing.

I never heard of Prince brand, and that sounds like a US producer (as opposed to distributor of ital stuff, and it has lots of pumped stuff).

I think I am going to try and develop a taste for the dark whole wheat pasta.

I think it all has to be bleached in order to remove the dark outer shell.

Geez, Rex.

Go buy a small bag of semolina at the market. It is not bleached or fortified, at least the semolina I have bought. It is not pale white and fluffy. Semolina doesn't need to be enriched.

Prince brand is one of the leading US producers of pasta.

The fact that enriched american unbleached flours started out as durum semolina is beside the point. Non bleached non enriched semolina exists.

Barilla Spaghetti is one of, if not the leading authentic Italian pastas...


Ingredients
Semolina, Durum Flour, Niacin, Iron (Ferrous Sulfate)Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid.


Yes, it too is fortified. It would not need to be fortified if it was not bleached.

I'll have to look that up. I'd be pretty surprised, but if it is a major eastern US brand, so?

To get rid of the brown to get to the basic durum semolina segment - I don't know the processes. Maybe Ceili does. I'm guessing just physical separation, but maybe it's more.

Past that there seems apparent to me to be three steps - leave it as is (durum semolina) or "unbleach" it, which clearly involves some whitening, or bleach it. Plus, in the US, add additives.

Whole wheat pasta - I'm eh, as I said. Whole grain, I can see that.

The shell is called bran. It is removed prior to grinding and bleaching unless the flour is whole grain then it's kept whole. When I referred to yellow pasta in the package, it is normally an egg noodle, although unbleached flour is yellowish too just not as yellow. If you look at a grain of wheat it is not white. We used to chew it as kids, it makes a gum. It doesn't last very long unlike a stick of juicy fruit and it's obviously not as sweet. It is the gluten that makes it gummy. You need this stickiness for a good pasta. You can make pasta from normal bread flour/wheat, it's just not as sticky.

I am not absolutely sure myself but white/yellow pasta is not whole wheat, thus, not as nutritious, the fact that it is fortified means that after the separation process it was dead and needed to be enriched.

I believe you, Ceili, we just have different experiences.
I make egg noodles once in a dog's age, haven't bought them for years. Yes, they are yellower.
Your unbleached may be yellower than mine. Mine is, ah, faint cream colored in the package and I'm guessing that is what some pasta companies have used in the past if less now.

My durum is definitely yellow and coarse. There are clear contrasts just by feel, never mind color.