[Sca-cooks] What Samidh Flour Isn't

David Friedman ddfr at daviddfriedman.com
Thu Aug 15 08:14:49 PDT 2013


It's worth noting that Nasrallah's standard description of samidh flour 
is "high in starch and bran free."

On 8/15/13 5:25 AM, Johnna Holloway wrote:
> With regard to flours, I ran a search for what is recommended or if anything is actually mentioned for use in Middle Eastern recipes.
> What do other authors in contemporary kitchens say--
>
>
> Habeeb Salloum, author of the new Scheherazade's Feasts, seems to specify just flour or a mix of whole wheat and regular flour in this article.
>
> http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/salloum135.html
> ----
> King Arthur flour suggests a mix of their flours for various flatbreads
> for instance
> 2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
> 5 cups King Arthur Unbleached Special Bread Flour
> http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/pizza-and-flatbread
>
> They offer 8 flours under the category yeast bread and pizza. Their Italian flour is listed as a "00".
> The "00" refers to the grind of the flour, and how much of the wheat's bran and germ have been removed, not to its protein level. There are low-, high- and in-between 00 flours. Our version is one of the lower protein ones.
> 8.5% protein.
>
> ------
>
> Oman Flour Mills http://www.omanflourmills.com/dahabi.html
> lists a number of flours with descriptions. Here are some--
>
> White Flour
> A premium quality, medium strength flour with a moderate protein content; ideal for soft breads, cakes and pastries.
>
> Flour No.2 (ATTA)
> A medium strength flour, characterized with a high bran content, most commonly used for making breads of the Indian Sub-continent and Far East such as Chappatti, Naan, Kulcha and Puri.
>
> Main Top Flour
> Another of our premier class flours typified by a high gluten content, enabling the dough to stay unbaked for extended periods. A specialized flour for professional bakers.
>
> Lebanese Bread Flour
> Produced from selected hard wheats, this top quality flour is ideally suited for the wide variety of Arabic Breads made in the Middle East.
> French Bread Flour
> A high gluten content characterizes this strong flour which makes the best crusty French Baguettes.
> -----
> Najmieh Batmanglij uses all purpose for barbari bread.
>   
> http://www.najmiehskitchen.com/pdf/fol_barbaribread.pdf
> -----
>
> This article from 1995 is interesting-- On the Flatbread Trail Written by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid
>
> http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/199505/on.the.flatbread.trail.htm
>
> Wheat is discussed here:
> http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/201301/pasta.s.winding.way.west.htm
>
> I suspect in the end it's going to require a blend of some sort and what works for you in California may not work as well
> in Denver or in NYC.
>
> Johnnae
>
> On Aug 14, 2013, at 11:47 PM, David Friedman wrote:
>
>> Lots of al Warraq's recipes specify samidh flour. I have usually interpreted that as semolina, following out Charles Perry's suggestion, but there isn't much evidence. Nasrallah, the translator, mentions two similar kinds of flour of which the samidh has lower gluten. That suggests that perhaps I ought to be using ordinary bread flour, or even cake flour, as per our recent discussion.
>> snipped
>>
>> I don't know whether samidh is semolina but it could be. It can't be anything very close to either of the other two flours I've tried.
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>

-- 
David Friedman
www.daviddfriedman.com
http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/




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