Einkorn Wheat

Einkorn refers to a wild wheat species, Triticum boeoticum, or its domesticated form, Triticum monococcum, a diploid hulled wheat in which each spikelet holds only a single grain; the domesticated form differs from the wild one mainly in that its ear stays intact when ripe rather than shattering. Unlike emmer and bread wheat, which arose through hybridization with Aegilops goatgrasses, einkorn is not a hybrid. It is among humanity's earliest cultivated crops, possibly gathered by hunter-gatherers as early as 30,000 years ago, with formal domestication around 10,000 years before the present in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic, and DNA evidence traces that domestication to near Karaca Dag in southeastern Turkey; historically it was eaten mainly boiled as a whole grain or in porridge rather than used for bread, and it carries higher levels of fat, phosphorus, potassium and beta-carotene than modern wheat.