[Sca-cooks] flour experimentation

[Johnna Holloway]

The one main advantage about King Arthur is that they are
nationally marketed. People can order their specialty flours
from anyplace in the country. They are a known commodity.
You may want to test King Arthur
flours because people in the future when they look at your results
are going to ask, "What about KA flours? How do those compare?"

I don't know that the recipe collections are the best or only source of 
material
on this subject, especially on the descriptions of flours.
I suspect that works like Maison rustique, or
The countrey farme¨ Compyled in the French tongue by Charles Steuens,
and Iohn Liebault, Doctors of Physicke.
And translated into English by Richard Surflet, published in various 
editions
as early as 1600 (also 1606 and 1616) in England but based
upon a work printed in the 1560's in France might be valuable.
Our old friend Geruase Markham was responsible for part of the 1616 
English edition.
Grains such as fine wheat or winter wheat, corse wheat-flowre or fine
wheat-meal are discussed. Chapter XX is all breads. Chapter XXI is
the diverse types of breads and what breads must be eaten.

There are a number of other works. Thomas Moffett also springs to mind. 
It was written
in the 1590's but wasn't printed until 1655. Moffett died in 1604. 
Chapter 25 of
Moffett's  Healths Improvement is titled "Of the Variety, Excellency, 
Making and True
Use of Bread."

Hope this helps,

Johnnae




Carole Smith wrote: snipped
>  Some period recipes say take the whitest flour you have.  I would take this instruction to possibly mean use the flour which browns more slowly, which lower gluten flour does - at least in my limited experimentation thus far. I am trying to be methodical as I learn about this particular ingredient, but am still in the early stages of my search for information on the topic.
>    
>   Cordelia Toser
>   
> Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net> wrote:    I'd like to hear more about this question and why you consider the KA 
> flours in particular to be too high in gluten/protein compared to other 
> flours for our re-creation.
>
>