On Food and Cooking

before milling.
All the grains have the same basic
structure. The fruit tissue consists of a layer
of epidermis and several thin inner layers,
including the ovary wall; altogether, it’s only
a few cells thick. Just underneath the seed
coat is the aleurone layer, only one to four
cells thick and yet containing oil, minerals,
protein, vitamins, enzymes, and flavor out of
proportion to its size. The aleurone layer is
the outer layer and only living part of the
endosperm; the rest is a mass of dead cells
that stores most of the carbohydrates and
protein, and that takes up most of the grain’s
volume. Abutting onto the endosperm from
one side is the scutellum, a single modified
leaf that absorbs, digests, and conducts food
from the endosperm to the embryo, or “germ,”
which is at the base of the fruit, and which is
also well endowed with oil, enzymes, and
flavor.
The endosperm (from the Greek: “within