How Traditional Wheat Semolina Is Made

The steps

• Wheat is cleaned and conditioned, dampened slightly so the bran loosens without turning soft, before it goes through the mill.
• Roller milling breaks the grain in stages, and the coarse middlings are sieved out at an early stage before the rest continues toward fine flour.
• What is sieved out at that stage is semolina. What continues through more rollers becomes flour.
• Traditional stone mills can produce a coarser, less uniform semolina than a modern roller mill, which some cooks prefer for texture.
• The bran and germ removed during this process go into flour blends or other uses rather than being wasted outright.

Our standards

Semolina making questions

Is semolina milled from a separate batch of wheat?

No, it is sieved out from the same milling run as flour, at an earlier, coarser stage of the process.

Does stone milled semolina taste different?

It can be less uniform in texture, which some cooks associate with a more traditional result, though flavour differences are subtle.

Why is wheat dampened before milling semolina?

Conditioning loosens the bran from the endosperm without softening it too much, making a cleaner separation during sieving.

What happens to the bran removed during semolina milling?

It typically goes into flour blends or other uses rather than being discarded.