This refers to the resistance of the grain to milling, in particular of the starchy endosperm, causing dough made from its flour to be weak or "soft".

Despite its high protein content, durum is not a strong wheat in the sense of giving strength to dough through the formation of a gluten network.

Durum contains 27% extractable wet gluten, about 3% higher than common wheat (T. aestivum L.).

[11] Durum wheat originated through intergeneric hybridization and polyploidization involving two diploid (having two sets of chromosomes) grass species: T. urartu (2n=2x=14, AA genome)[clarification needed] and a B-genome diploid related to Aegilops speltoides (2n=2x=14, SS genome)[clarification needed][12][13] and is thus an allotetraploid (having four sets of chromosomes, from unlike parents) species.

[14][15][16] One of the predominant production areas of durum—Italy—has domesticated varieties with lower genetic diversity than wild types, but ssp.

[citation needed] Husked but unground, or coarsely ground, it is used to produce the semolina in the couscous of North Africa and the Levant.

[citation needed] The cultivation of durum generates greater yield than other wheats in areas of low precipitation.

[25] West amber durum produced in Canada is used mostly as semolina/pasta, but some is also exported to Italy for bread production.

[26] In the Middle East and North Africa, local bread-making accounts for half the consumption of durum.

First, durum wheat is cleaned to remove foreign material and shrunken and broken kernels.

Then it is tempered to a moisture content, toughening the seed coat for efficient separation of bran and endosperm.

Proper purifying results in maximum semolina yield and the least amount of bran powder.