I was wondering if anyone out there knows how you can make Cream of Wheat from your own freshly ground wheat berries. It costs $3.49 for a box of the 2 1/2 minute stuff. The ingredients are:

wheat farina (what is farina?), wheat germ (which is already in your wheat berry anyways), and disodium phosphate (for quick cooking, and something that I don't care about....nor do I know what it is).

Also, what about making other products like Wheatena, or something? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Tammy

-- Tammy (btawilliams@juno.com), January 23, 2001

Answers

I think this is like cream of wheat:

1/4 cup whole wheat flour 3/4 cup water

Bring to a boil in saucepan while stirring. Continue to boil a minute or two. Serve with cream or milk and with honey or whatever you like.

I just saw this recipe in C-side.

-- Denise (jphammock@msn.com), January 23, 2001.

I may be wrong, but I am under the impression that farina is a wheat flour to which is added malted barley, water,yeast and salt, fermented, then baked, and reground into particles that is called Farina. The cream part comes about because of the 'creamy' texture by all the processing.

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), January 23, 2001.

I thought cream of wheat was just wheat run through a grinder at a little coarser grind than you would use for flour. That is how we make cream of rice. You have to stir the rice quite a bit or it will lump up though.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), January 24, 2001.

In italian FARINA means flour. I make cream of wheat with semolina (which you could probably find at your local grocery store.)

-- kelly (kellytree@hotmail.com), January 24, 2001.

I tried the recipe I posted above this morning on the kids. And I would say it's cream of wheat only darker because of the whole wheat. Next time I'll add the flour more slowly as I had some lumps. The lumps were kind of like oatmeal lumps. As a matter of fact we all liked it and the kids just thought it was some sort of oatmeal.

Just thought since I posted it, I'd better try it.

-- Denise (jphammock@msn.com), January 24, 2001.

Is there a difference between Farina and Grits?

-- hillbilly (internethillbilly@hotmail.com), January 24, 2001.

I suppose I should clarify that there are a couple of different products in this country known as farina. Imported italian farina usually means a type of very coarse flour, but the one I was citing is a precooked pasta type product that cooks up very quickly (how they get the one minute cooking time on modern foods -- precooking). Farina is a wheat product, grits are made from corn treated with lye.

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), January 24, 2001.

Hi Tammy - Around here you can buy bulk farina at the grocery store for lots less than $3.49 a pound. I think it's under a dollar.

Also, if you want to try the homemade kind from coarse flour, I was thinking it might give a better texture if you sifted out the really fine flour and used it for something else. The cereal would likely turn out a bit less gluey. Good luck!

-- Laura Jensen (lauraj@seedlaw.com), January 25, 2001.

If you would like a cream of wheat style soup, try the 3-minute bean soup in the current issue and substitute coarse whole wheat flour for the bean flour. It's great!

-- Sandy Davis (smd2@netzero.net), January 26, 2001.

Hillbilly, farina is wheat but grits are made of corn that has first been made into hominy.

-- (ratdogs10@yahoo.com), January 26, 2001.