Emmer grains are elegantly long, like basmati, compared to the plump nubs of modern wheat. In Grain of Truth, Stephen Yafa’s book on wheat, he explains that emmer was hulled, “meaning that every two seeds sit inside an all but impenetrable fortress of tightly bound chaff, called a spikelet, that had to be soaked, dried and fiercely thwacked just to free the seed, which then had to be soaked and whacked again to separate out the edible meal…”
