ash content??
- simonineaston
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ash content??
I just dug through my store cupboard, wishing like a lot of folk these days I think, to use everything up. I found a bag of flour labelled T55 and I learn that it's a French style bread flour and the T55 refers to its ash content. I recall reading that flours could in the past be adultorated by unscrupulous sellers with all sorts of strang stuff - but ash - how so?
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
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Re: ash content??
It doesn’t mean there’s ash in it, it tells you how much ash results if it is burned, which is a secondary measure of how much bran there is in it.
I would guess that French Bread flour is very low in bran, so low in ash, and lacking in minerals, so not the healthiest to eat.
I would guess that French Bread flour is very low in bran, so low in ash, and lacking in minerals, so not the healthiest to eat.
Last edited by Nearholmer on 29 Nov 2022, 2:24pm, edited 2 times in total.
Re: ash content??
It isn’t about adulteration. Ash content tells you about mineral content. Mineral is mostly in bran. So measuring the ash content is used to determine the bran content, and then to classify the flour.
Edited: As above.
Jonathan
Edited: As above.
Jonathan
Re: ash content??
You're partly right: T55 does refer to ash, but to residual ash after the flour has been burnt to assay its mineral-matter content. In generalsimonineaston wrote: ↑29 Nov 2022, 2:09pm I just dug through my store cupboard, wishing like a lot of folk these days I think, to use everything up. I found a bag of flour labelled T55 and I learn that it's a French style bread flour and the T55 refers to its ash content. I recall reading that flours could in the past be adultorated by unscrupulous sellers with all sorts of strang stuff - but ash - how so?
T55-T65: white-bread flours, T65 being the whitest.
T80 & T110: used for brown and crusty bread
T150: wholegrain flours, meaning not that they contain entire grains but that the entirety of the grain is used.
...
See https://www.archibald.bio/edito/12-clas ... es-farines
Have we got time for another cuppa?
- simonineaston
- Posts: 8062
- Joined: 9 May 2007, 1:06pm
- Location: ...at a cricket ground
Re: ash content??
Ah-ha - makes sense now. There's me thinking thems pesky French boulangeres was popping some industrial furnace products into their exports maybe to say Yah Boo & Sucks to us for leaving...
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
- simonineaston
- Posts: 8062
- Joined: 9 May 2007, 1:06pm
- Location: ...at a cricket ground
Re: ash content??
...and as a Thank You, I link to a recipe for bannocks which say you can use any flour - sounds tasty !!
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2022/n ... ity-cloake
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2022/n ... ity-cloake
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
Re: ash content??
An interesting fact I learned on a tour of a windmill at Ashford in Kent. More windmills in the UK were destroyed by explosions and fire from igniting flour dust than by any other single cause.
The older I get the more I’m inclined to act my shoe size, not my age.
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Re: ash content??
We made bannock last week. Not bad and something to make on a camp out I reckon.
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Re: ash content??
I'm guessing it's measured as part of a calorimetry test?
Re: ash content??
One of my first experiences as a student apprentice at the power station was taking coal samples from deliveries and burning it in an oven to measure it's calorific value.
Didn't they bulk up flour with plaster of Paris. .
Perfect set on baked cakes, no soggy bottoms.
Didn't they bulk up flour with plaster of Paris. .
Perfect set on baked cakes, no soggy bottoms.
At the last count:- Peugeot 531 pro, Dawes Discovery Tandem, Dawes Kingpin X3, Raleigh 20 stowaway X2, 1965 Moulton deluxe, Falcon K2 MTB dropped bar tourer, Rudge Bi frame folder, Longstaff trike conversion on a Giant XTC 840
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Re: ash content??
I seem to recall that Ashford was the location of a huge flour mill explosion, in a steam mill in the town.More windmills in the UK were destroyed by explosions and fire from igniting flour dust than by any other single cause.
When the “factory inspectorate” had a “horror museum” in London decades ago, they had a big wooden (c1:24) model of the mill on display and it was rigged-up to “explode”. I’m not sure how it was achieved, I suspect that it was trickery using stage-prop style gubbins, but it was very impressive, involving a big bang and the roof being blown off.
Anyway, it made me remember the risk of dust explosions, which was surely the point!
The museum also included people being scalped and strangled by getting entangled in pillar drills and lathes - equally realistic and memorable.
Re: ash content??
Dunno. Do they still sell Mother's Pride in the UK?
Have we got time for another cuppa?
Re: ash content??
I went on a visit to that "horror museum" - we all became very safety conscious.Nearholmer wrote: ↑29 Nov 2022, 5:54pmI seem to recall that Ashford was the location of a huge flour mill explosion, in a steam mill in the town.More windmills in the UK were destroyed by explosions and fire from igniting flour dust than by any other single cause.
When the “factory inspectorate” had a “horror museum” in London decades ago, they had a big wooden (c1:24) model of the mill on display and it was rigged-up to “explode”. I’m not sure how it was achieved, I suspect that it was trickery using stage-prop style gubbins, but it was very impressive, involving a big bang and the roof being blown off.
Anyway, it made me remember the risk of dust explosions, which was surely the point!
The museum also included people being scalped and strangled by getting entangled in pillar drills and lathes - equally realistic and memorable.
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Re: ash content??
Bread flour can contain lots of hair. Think i prefer ash.
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I ride Brompton and a 100% British Vintage.
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I ride Brompton and a 100% British Vintage.