[Sca-cooks] FW: Flour types

[Terry Decker]

On 5/23/06, Terry Decker <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>
> Ash is the mineral content by weight remaining as ash when a sample of
> flour
> is burned.  The higher the ash content, the greater extraction of flour
> from
> the original grain.
>
> Bear


OK, then how does this affect the baking? And, why would the Germans use
this to grade their flour? Does this mean a more efficient milling process,
or what?

Saint Phlip  (almost Stefan, asking a question like this ;-)


All milling operations measure the ash in their flours to measure the 
quality of their extraction and to maintain a consistency between runs of 
flour.  Wheat germ has a higher mineral and protein content than the 
endosperm.  Roller milling initially seperates the wheat germ and the 
endosperm, so you can mix them together to establish the extraction you 
want.  For example, U.S. all purpose flour, which does not have much germ in 
it is about 60 per cent extraction, finely ground whole wheat flour will be 
near 100 per cent extraction.  Higher extraction flours will have higher 
mineral and protein content.

The German Mehltype is measured by incinerating 100g of flour and weighing 
the ash that remains.  The weight of the ash in milligrams is compared 
against a set of extraction ranges to get the official type number 
(essentially the number in the middle of each extraction range).

France uses the Type de Farine, which is an order of magnitude smaller than 
the German types.  The French burn 10g and use the weight of the ash in 
milligrams.

The U.S. and Great britian do not use ash measures (although you can usually 
get the information from the mill).  The U.S. requires the percentage of 
protein by weight be in the nutrition label, which provides approximately 
the same information as the flour type in Germany or France.  The difference 
is German and French flours are standardized nationally, in the U.S. the 
flours are not standardized and percentage of protein in the same type of 
flour may differ between manufacturers.

Bear