One of the first processed food items in the world, bulgur was among the military supplies during the expeditions of Mongol Emperor Genghis Khan. Chinese Emperor Shen Nung determined wheat, which is the main ingredient of bulgur, to be one of the five holy plants with rice, corn, barley and soybean in 2800 BC. The holy book of the Christians, the Bible indicates that the ancient Babylonian, Hittite and Hebrew people used cooked and dried wheat about 4000 years ago and the Egyptians and the other civilizations in the Eastern Mediterranean used cooked and dried wheat in 1000 BC. Bulgur has been known by various names throughout the history. The Romans called it "cerealis", the Middle East people called it "arisah" and bulgur is mentioned with the name, “arisah” in the Bible as well. According to the Bible researchers, the bulgur is a food substance obtained from semi-boiled and sun dried wheat and written in various forms such as "burghul", "burghoul", "balgour", "boulgur".The name of bulgur comes from thousands of years ago, just like the bulgur itself. In many Western languages, bulgur is called as "bulgur" as the people of the Middle East called it. Due to its Arabic pronunciation, it is called “burgul” in Arab countries. Born in Anatolia and spreading throughout the world, bulgur is on its way to become a universal taste.
Bulgur is a food product, claimed to have been known for 4000 years. Its use is very old especially in our country, in the Middle East and in some Balkan countries. The increase in the world population, which has come to fruition with the progress of civilization, confronts the nations with the hunger problem. Therefore, the nations of the world are going to seek and benefit from foods that are high in nutrition, easy to store and economical, in addition to the usual foods. Researchers focus on this kind of foods, especially to be used during nuclear wars. Therefore, bulgur, which has all these characteristics, attracts the attention of researchers in this field and bulgur production is developing as a branch of the industry in many countries, especially in the United States of America.
The first factory in literature is the factory founded by Rıza Küçükoğlu. The first factory of bulgur production was launched by Rıza Kücükoğlu in Karaman to meet the need of the military during World War I. The main bulgur production in Turkey has been highest in Karaman and Gaziantep, followed by İçel and Çorum, as of 1990, respectively.
Later, when the people in these regions began to introduce bulgur in America and established the first factories here, it has become a product, which is emphasized in that country. Sometimes the number of factories reached about 25 and this number continuously changed in time. However, an important truth emerged: “traditionalism”. Because, although the process is exactly the same, the intricacies of the labor and production that have been given to work have begun to manifest themselves at the last moment. It has begun to appear that the bulgur produced in America is weaker and extend to a different size than the actual bulgur. Systems, used in bulgur production at homes, workshops and factories affect cost and quality. In the method used at homes, wheat which is cooked in boiled water for about 1-2 hours by adding water at approximately twice the amount of wheat is dried under the sun. The cooked bulgur is called boiled wheat. Skin of the dried cooked wheat is removed in stone mortar, wooden mallet or mills and crushed in mills.
Turkey, which made its first production yesterday in Bulgur production history, offers the bulgur that has the traditional taste and crushed in the stone mill to the consumers through the most modern production of “Çatalhöyük Bulgur” that receives its name from the soils where farming was first made, through Pangev Karapınar Bulgur Factory, which is a Konya Şeker’s participation and a farmer organization today, with its fully automated and PLC controlled system in the most modern facility of “taste, flavor and cooking quality”.
