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„Orkish flour” – origin, composition, advantages
Oliwia Kaczmarek
Author
2026-03-15
Date
6 min. read
article.read_time
6
Chapters
"Orchid flour" is a very popular food product among those who are concerned about their figure and health.. It frequently appears in cooking recipes, for example when baking bread or producing various confectionery products.. Although orchid is very similar to wheat, it has significantly better nutritional qualities.. In Polish literature, this grain is known as orkisz, orkisz wheat, wheat orchid, wheat of St. Hildegard or spelt. So, what is orkisz and what are its health benefits, as well as the advantages of orchid flour and products made from it?
Pochodzenie orkisu
The precise origin of Orkis (Triticum spelta L.) remains unclear. It is believed to be a mutation of its ancestral forms of wild cereals, specifically einkorn (Triticum monococcum L.) and emmer (Triticum dicoccum L.), or their crossbreeding with other species. The initiation of orkis wheat cultivation is akin to that of durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) and common wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), dating back to approximately the 9th to 6th century BC. Nevertheless, the propagation of orkis throughout Europe took place around the 2nd century BC. In the Middle Ages, orkis garnered significant prominence due to the writings of St. Hildegard of Bingen in the 12th century, who commended its nutritional merits and declared it the superior grain. In Poland, orkis was extensively cultivated in the 8th century, but by the end of the 18th century, it was supplanted by other grains for economic reasons, such as simpler grain processing. Orkis then became confined to mountainous areas. Presently, owing to escalating consumer consciousness and the pursuit of food with superior nutritional value, orkis has reclaimed its former prominence.
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