I went to a cereal field day with Tom Wagner.
Triticale is a stabilized and rather complicated hybrid between wheat and rye. I think the original idea was to breed a cereal that had the protein content of wheat, and was easy-to-grow and tolerant of adverse conditions like rye. Triticale is not only high in protein, but it is more complete protein than the protein in wheat, having more lysine. Triticale rivals high-lysine corn for lysine content, but without the GMO controversy and regulations, and having significantly more protein in total.
There was some discussion about the gluten in Triticale. In fact I think I overheard Tom asking if Tritcale had been bred with hard or soft wheat.
The speaker said no, Triticale is only ever bred with Triticale. It won't cross back to wheat or rye. Wrong chromosome count. The answer to the question, though, was that it was bred using hard red wheat.
Someone else asked about making bread with it, and the speaker said no, you can't make bread with it, unless you use mostly wheat flour and add "just a tiny proportion" of Triticale, "because Triticale doesn't have any gluten".
That didn't sound right to me, because both parents contain gluten. The whole complex does, which is why it's not a great idea to give celiacs Rye, Spelt, Kamut, or Triticale. Besides, Triticale is famous for its protein content, and if most of the protein is not gluten, what is it?
I looked it up, and got conflicting information. The information that looks more accurate, having the scientific studies and breakdown, says it does contain gluten, and in proportions rivaling hard red wheat.
The problem is something's wrong with it. Maybe the 2 component proteins are not in the right ratio, or maybe something is specifically wrong with the glutenin. In any case, it is not as strong and elastic as wheat gluten.
But I'm not one to give up that easily. I did more digging, and found that there is significant interest in using it for bread in Eastern Europe, especially at higher latitudes where wheat won't grow at all, or grows poorly.
For those who don't know, the USA doesn't grow much Triticale. There's a little grown in the inland northwest. I would not be surprised if acreage has actually dropped, due to declining interest in this grain. You used to be able to buy it in markets here along with whole wheat flour and whole rye, and it used to be fairly common as a rolled grain similar to oats. Not anymore. I was surprised when I went out and could not find it. It is listed as a very minor ingredient in 10-grain porridges. In some parts of the country, you can find it rolled and clinging to the crust of a loaf of bread--but that is a very small amount.
BTW, I did notice the trend with porridges a long time ago: in Seattle it is challenging to buy any porridge that does not contain oats (or sugar). The very few exceptions--only 1 or 2 anymore, and getting hard to find, are wheat farinas and corn grits. I'm in the market for a grain mill, and one of the things I might do with it is grind my own non-oat, non-wheat porridge. I am more sensitive to avenin than I am to gluten!
Mostly, domestic Triticale is probably ending up as chicken-feed. :(
It seems weird that Triticale is so unavailable in a city at the end of a huge grain export system feeding in by rail from the bread basket states, with gigantic grain mills at the port. But it is still available mail-order from places like Bob's Red Mill. I'll have to order some to continue with my experiments.
Bob's Red Mill has a recipe for 100% Triticale bread.
http://www.bobsredmill.com/triticale-flour.htmlIt uses, as I expected, a short kneed time and a single rise. A longer, more vigorous kneed would break the delicate gluten strands, as would the "punching down" of a 2-rise recipe.
But I suspect I can improve it with some tricks I know. That's why I want to experiment. It would also be worthwhile to figure out what else to do with it.
