Wheat

Wheat is the most important cereal in Mediterranean civilization and Western cooking, responsible for leavened bread, pasta, pastry, and a vast range of other preparations. What makes wheat unique is its gluten — a protein network of exceptional elasticity that no other grain can replicate. That elasticity comes from a genetic accident: bread wheat’s six chromosome sets, the result of an unusual hybridization ~8,000 years ago, produced a glutenin protein with uniquely springy bonds.