[Sca-cooks] Shortbread was Period Flour Query

[terry l. ridder]

On Sat, 10 Feb 2007, David Friedman wrote:

>> On Fri, 9 Feb 2007, David Friedman wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>>  Incidentally, does anyone have a good explanation of why you bake the
>>>  flour first?
>>> 
>> 
>> the manual for army cooks, 1883 and 1896 editions mention to brown the
>> flour used to thicken drippings for gravy. my brother and i experimented
>> with this back in 1995. the browning of the flour definitely removes the
>> flour taste and imparts a slightly nutty flavor. a side-effect is that
>> the gravy is not lightened by the use of plain white flour.
>> 
>> my brother, a military historian, also thinks based on anecdotal and
>> comtemporary writings of enlisted solders and quartermasters, that it
>> may have been recommended to kill off any parasitic infestations in the
>> flour.
>
> The problem with these explanations is that, so far as I know,  most other 
> recipes using flour don't have any similar instructions--although I could be 
> wrong, since I'm not that familiar with late period recipes.
>

this is true. a quick skim of the two manuals for army cooks i have give
no browning of flour instructions except for gravy.

perhaps another reason for doing so was to pick out the stone grit from
the mill. basically, anything not flour would not be the same color as
the baked flour. i am thinking mainly of inorganic contamination,
specificly grit from the millstones.

>
> That suggests to me that there is something special about this sort of recipe 
> that requires baked flour, but I have no idea what. Clearly experimentation 
> is called for.
>

the flour my brother and i used for experiementing was whole wheat flour
fresh from the mill. northern illinois steam and power club had their
annual show, we took a half bushel of wheat to be ground/milled in the
small grain mill they have. the grain mill is powered by a hit-n-miss
engine and a wide flat leather belt. we later sifted the freshly milled
flour to separate out hulls and chaff.

we only experiemented with the gravy making.

>
> But of course, it might be connected with some difference between their flour 
> and ours; I have no idea what sorts of processing beyond grinding, and 
> sometimes bleaching, modern flour goes through.
>

-- 
terry l. ridder ><>