A few years ago, I posted some information about flour needing to be
"aged". Boy-oh-boy. What responses. You would think I had just fallen
off the turnip truck, so to speak. So, even though I had this "aged"
busines from a professional baker of over 30 years in the bakery
business, I let it drop. Wow! the criticism did sting.

However, with Google now providing access to books in the "public
domain" (a copyright thing), I am back and can now show that good
bakers want "aged" flour.

Go see:

http://books.google.com/books?vid=OC...dough&as_brr=1

an exciting book on "old fashioned" food. See page 458.

So take "that" Samarth.

For all others, no need to thank me.

Hello:

I have no dog in this fight. I want fresh milled flour because of its
purported higher nutritional value, particularly the freshest wheat germ
oils and all of the natural fiber. I don't sell my bread or run a bakery,
so I will deal with the variability. My bread only has to please me.

However, I wondered if before posting this, did you bother to read a little
of it? Did you read about rye flour? Aged rye flour goes rancid. Did you
only read the portion that reinforced your position?

Did you read page 459
(http://books.google.com/books?vid=OC...&dq=aged+flour
) in which another "expert" who uses a 1,000 pounds of fresh milled flour a
day contradicts what is written on page 458?

Go figure. IMHO when it comes to opinion, seldom is there a crystal clear
line delineating right and wrong. Next thing you know people will be baking
bread seasoned with moth balls <g>.

Ray


----- Original Message -----
From: >
Newsgroups: rec.food.sourdough
To: >
Sent: Monday, September 11, 2006 5:34 PM
Subject: Aged flour


>A few years ago, I posted some information about flour needing to be
> "aged". Boy-oh-boy. What responses. You would think I had just fallen
> off the turnip truck, so to speak. So, even though I had this "aged"
> busines from a professional baker of over 30 years in the bakery
> business, I let it drop. Wow! the criticism did sting.
>
> However, with Google now providing access to books in the "public
> domain" (a copyright thing), I am back and can now show that good
> bakers want "aged" flour.
>
> Go see:
>
> http://books.google.com/books?vid=OC...dough&as_brr=1
>
> an exciting book on "old fashioned" food. See page 458.
>
> So take "that" Samarth.
>
> For all others, no need to thank me.
>
> _______________________________________________
> rec.food.sourdough mailing list
>
> http://www.otherwhen.com/mailman/lis...food.sourdough
>
> To unsubscribe send a mail to
> and then reply to the confirmation request.

I too have ground my own whole meal flour with a stone mill used
organic wheat. Was told by the experts that ageing for at least two
weeks necessary. But then would lose of lot of the goodness in grain
volatile oils, flavour compounds etc. So I used it fresh. Made great
bread. One customer said " it tastes like the earth itself'. I think
that you do lose some volume by doing this and get a finer gas cell
arrangement, but these are modern commercial goals, sort of Paris
Hilton stuff. On the other hand most wholewheat flour sold commercially
is roller milled and separated into all its components and then only
some are recombined certainly not the wheat germ oils that can go
rancid. A recent book by Jefferey Hammelman reasserts the need to
oxidise by ageing but then he is part of the commercial scene. In the
end people bake what they like. Now that I teach baking rather than
bake to sell, I feel a lot freer around this stuff. Padriac
WRK wrote:
> Hello:
>
> I have no dog in this fight. I want fresh milled flour because of its
> purported higher nutritional value, particularly the freshest wheat germ
> oils and all of the natural fiber. I don't sell my bread or run a bakery,
> so I will deal with the variability. My bread only has to please me.
>
> However, I wondered if before posting this, did you bother to read a little
> of it? Did you read about rye flour? Aged rye flour goes rancid. Did you
> only read the portion that reinforced your position?
>
> Did you read page 459
> (http://books.google.com/books?vid=OC...&dq=aged+flour
> ) in which another "expert" who uses a 1,000 pounds of fresh milled flour a
> day contradicts what is written on page 458?
>
> Go figure. IMHO when it comes to opinion, seldom is there a crystal clear
> line delineating right and wrong. Next thing you know people will be baking
> bread seasoned with moth balls <g>.
>
> Ray
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: >
> Newsgroups: rec.food.sourdough
> To: >
> Sent: Monday, September 11, 2006 5:34 PM
> Subject: Aged flour
>
>
> >A few years ago, I posted some information about flour needing to be
> > "aged". Boy-oh-boy. What responses. You would think I had just fallen
> > off the turnip truck, so to speak. So, even though I had this "aged"
> > busines from a professional baker of over 30 years in the bakery
> > business, I let it drop. Wow! the criticism did sting.
> >
> > However, with Google now providing access to books in the "public
> > domain" (a copyright thing), I am back and can now show that good
> > bakers want "aged" flour.
> >
> > Go see:
> >
> > http://books.google.com/books?vid=OC...dough&as_brr=1
> >
> > an exciting book on "old fashioned" food. See page 458.
> >
> > So take "that" Samarth.
> >
> > For all others, no need to thank me.
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > rec.food.sourdough mailing list
> >
> > http://www.otherwhen.com/mailman/lis...food.sourdough
> >
> > To unsubscribe send a mail to
> > and then reply to the confirmation request.

"However, I wondered if before posting this, did you bother to read a
little
of it? Did you read about rye flour? Aged rye flour goes rancid. Did
you
only read the portion that reinforced your position? "

Yea, I read the whole book. [period!]

Yea, I read about rye, but this post is about wheat, albeit that's not
obvious to you.

I don't have a position, I like it flour both ways. Sometimes aged is
better sometimes the other way around.

The earlier responders to my post were way to "doctrinaire" about aged
versus fresh. That's the total of my "position". There is room for
both.

Where do you see this as a position?

"However, I wondered if before posting this, did you bother to read a
little
of it? Did you read about rye flour? Aged rye flour goes rancid. Did
you
only read the portion that reinforced your position? "

Yea, I read the whole book. [period!]

Yea, I read about rye, but this post is about wheat, albeit that's not
obvious to you.

I don't have a position, I like it flour both ways. Sometimes aged is
better sometimes the other way around.

The earlier responders to my post were way to "doctrinaire" about aged
versus fresh. That's the total of my "position". There is room for
both.

Where do you see this as a position?