[Sca-cooks] period flour

[Stefan li Rous]

Bear mentioned:
  <<< Check the nutritional information on the bags.  Gold Medal All  
Purpose is
10% protein.  High gluten bread flours are up around 14% protein.  Soft
flours usual run 9% down to about 7%.  If you want to match traditional
European flours, soft flours are the closest match, but you can fudge
with the Gold Medal. >>>

 From this thread it sounds like most modern bread flours are harder  
flours with more protein than what was used in most of period Europe.  
Why this change? Do the high gluten/high protein flours grow better  
these days or yield more? Are they better for machine driven  
agriculture? Or is there some other reason they are preferred?

<<< In the past, I have been able to get bulk whole wheat pastry  
flour from a
local health food store, which is probably as close to period  
European flour
as you are going to get.  Both Arrowhead Mills and Bob's Red Mill  
produce
whole wheat pastry flour.  Quite a few groceries carry one or the  
other or
both and might be willing to special order for you.>>>

How does the bread differ, especially the period breads we know of,  
when it is made with a harder wheat than when made with the softer,  
pastry flours that are apparently closer to those of period Europe?

I'm still keeping the back of mind the idea that the reason that  
medieval Europeans didn't make/use the sandwich is that their bread  
wasn't conducive to sandwich making. Perhaps the type of flour enters  
into this. Or maybe not.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****