Reconstructed Rebel
1st Lieutenant
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2021
A better name for the article below might be "A Short History of Flour," or "Making Good Bread. " I know a lot of us have read how grateful CW soldiers on both sides were when they could get "soft white bread." What I didn't know was that the process of making white flour wasn't perfected, according to this article, until the mid 1800s. And still the flour we have now isn't the flour they had then. I wonder how much that affects old recipes when we try to recreate them? The article also contains a whole lot other information, including how to check if plaster had been added to the flour to increase the weight and bulk (add vinegar to a bit of the flour- it will bubble)!
https://www.valleytable.com/vt-article/short-history-wheat
https://www.valleytable.com/vt-article/short-history-wheat