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Cereal
grains have been the staple food of all the great
civilisations. The word cereal comes from Cerere,
goddess of the harvest. The main cereal grains used in ancient
times were barley and spelt in its two varieties: triticum
dicoccum, the oldest, and triticum monococcum.
Triticum
dicoccum, the spelt used nowadays to make spelt pasta, was
replaced by other types of wheat. In China, the most
widespread cereal grain was millet, which then spread to
Europe and Africa. During Etruscan times millet was the
preferred cereal grain. Barley, which had been quite popular,
became the cereal grain used as punishment .
In
convents, penance was done by drinking water and eating barley
bread. Rice, too, originated in Asia and arrived in Italy in
the 14th Century, specifically in the Po River
area. Corn became very popular throughout the whole of
America.
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