[Sca-cooks] White Flour, White Sugar

[Terry Decker]

>Bear, i'm trying to get this clear in my mind:
>
>Would a Medieval white flour have had the germ left in, but the bran
>removed by bolting?

Exactly.  Roller milling, which originates in the 19th Century and is the
common method of milling flour today, happens to seperate the germ from the
kernel during the first pass.  It makes the flour less susceptible to
spoilage and produces an additional product, wheat germ.  In period the germ
and the kernel would have been milled together.  Whole wheat is flour which
retains the germ.  Whole graham wheat or whole wheat with graham retains the
bran and is basicly wheat straight from the mill.  White, unbleached and
whole wheat flour have had the bran and middlings (coarse particles of the
kernel) removed by sieving (bolting).

>
>Second, since we often use the word "medieval" as a sort of short
>hand, do your comments cover Renaissance/late "period" flour, or
>would Renaissance period flour have been significantly different from
>earlier Medieval flour?
>
>Anahita

Einkorn was the original wheat brought into Europe in the Neolithic.  It was
replaced by emmer, which was introduced by the Romans, but may have reached
Europe earlier.  Somewhere between the 6th and 8th Centuries, emmer was
replaced by the modern club wheats.  Ease of threshing and improved yields
were behind each of these changes.

These wheats were relatively soft wheats, so the wheat in Europe during
period was probably on the order of White Lily.  Soft flour was still the
order of the day in Europe in the 20th Century.  A soft "all purpose" stone
ground whole wheat of today would likely be much like its period
counterpart.

It is worth noting that both spelt and durum which are hard wheats were also
used in period.  Spelt was used in breads and some other specialty dishes.
Spelt meal is more coarse than most flours.  Durum (semolina) was used
primarily, then and now, for making pasta.  Since they have lower yields,
they were not as widely planted as the club wheat.

Bear