Grains

Grains are the dried seeds of cereal grasses such as rice, wheat, corn and barley, plus look-alike seeds such as quinoa and buckwheat, cooked whole, cracked or milled. Beans and lentils are often sold alongside them, but they are pulses, the dried seeds of legumes.

How to choose Grains

  • Whole or refined. Draft FDA guidance treats a grain as whole when bran, germ and starchy center remain in natural proportion. White rice has the bran and germ milled away and keeps longer than brown.
  • Keeping time. White rice keeps 1 to 2 years and brown rice about 1 year. Cornmeal keeps about 12 months tightly covered, longer in the freezer.
  • Grain or pulse. Pulses are legumes harvested only for their dry seed: beans, lentils, chickpeas and dry peas. Green beans and soybeans grown for oil do not count.

About Grains

Most grains come from cereal grasses such as barley, rice, wheat and wild rice. The FDA's draft whole-grain list also takes in amaranth, buckwheat and quinoa, which come from other plants. Some are sold whole, some pearled, some ground into meal.

Polenta is a porridge usually made of ground corn cooked in salted water, a traditional food of northern Italy, especially Piedmont. Italian law sorts rice by grain length and shape into tondo, medio, lungo A and lungo B, and it protects risotto names such as Arborio and Carnaroli with set grain sizes.

Store grains tightly covered in a cool cupboard, where white rice keeps up to 2 years. Cornmeal keeps about a year, and the freezer holds it far longer. Coarse grains draw pantry moths, so keep them in a jar with a firm lid rather than a rolled-down sack.

At a glance

Main types
Rice, farro, barley, corn for polenta, wild rice
Label terms
Whole grain, pearled, tondo, lungo A, Arborio, Carnaroli
Unopened
White rice 1 to 2 years; brown rice 1 year
Serve with
Beans, roasted vegetables, braises, olive oil

Grains questions

Which rice should I use for risotto?

Arborio, Carnaroli and Vialone nano are traditional Italian rices used for risotto, and Italian law protects each name with set grain measurements. Arborio has the longest grains, 6.6 to 7.2 millimeters, Carnaroli runs 5.8 to 6.8 and Vialone nano 5.4 to 5.8. Older class names such as superfino no longer appear in current Italian rice law.

What is farro?

Farro is the Italian name for three hulled wheats, so called because the grain keeps its husk at harvest. Farro piccolo is einkorn, farro medio is emmer and farro grande is spelt. It cooks into a firm, chewy grain for soups and salads.

Sources: US Food and Drug Administration; Italian Legislative Decree 131 on rice; Whole Grains Council; Bioversity International (CGIAR) on hulled wheats.

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