On the Analysis of Wheat Flour
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the flour
Grind the wheat seed in a hand mill.
Sift the meal through a fine sieve to separate bran and flour.
You should have 12 ounces of fine flour and 3 ounces of bran.
Form the dough
Place the flour in a bowl and gradually add water while kneading.
Continue kneading and adding water until a glutinous substance forms.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Wheat seed
- Provides the starch and gluten-forming proteins that become the flour.
- Water
- Hydrates the flour so its proteins form gluten when kneaded.
The step that matters
Add water gradually while kneading. Adding water slowly lets the flour absorb it evenly, so gluten develops into a cohesive dough rather than a sticky or crumbly mass.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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