Einkorn

Triticum monococcum

Einkorn is the simplest cultivated wheat and one of the first wheats domesticated, probably around ten thousand years ago in the Fertile Crescent.¹² It is diploid, carrying two chromosome sets, and it is a hulled or “covered” wheat: the grain stays wrapped in a papery husk after threshing and needs an extra step to free it.² That husk is not just historical baggage; it makes einkorn slower to process than the free-threshing wheat that later displaced it. The grain is high in protein and rich in yellow carotenoid pigments, which give its flour a naturally golden tint.¹³

Its gluten behaves differently from modern bread wheat’s. McGee describes einkorn as having roughly twice as much flowing gliadin as elastic glutenin, producing a sticky, fluid dough that is poorly suited to lofty bread but useful for pasta and flatbreads.¹ That is a structural difference, not a claim that einkorn is gluten-free: it remains wheat and is not suitable for people who need to avoid gluten.

The Northeast has become part of einkorn’s comeback. Cornell and regional partners have worked with organic farmers in New England, New York, and Pennsylvania to select and produce seed for einkorn and other ancient wheats adapted to local conditions, where suitable organic seed was once scarce.⁴⁵ That work treats einkorn as a crop with a regional future, not simply as an imported historical curiosity. The notebook’s einkorn pasta work uses 00 einkorn flour from Wild Hive in the Hudson Valley, testing how the dough handles at different kneading times.