On Flour, and Why It Matters

On Flour, and Why It Matters

Most people do not think about their flour. It is the background ingredient, the one that never gets credit, the thing you scoop into the bowl without reading the bag. But flour is the foundation of almost everything baked — and what that foundation is made of, and how it was grown and milled and treated before it reached your kitchen, shapes what you are actually putting in your body every time you eat something made from it.

French Flour Difference

The difference begins with the wheat itself. In France, soft wheat is the most widely grown cereal, lending a softer texture when baked and a lower protein content which impacts the amount of gluten-forming potential. In the United States, hard red wheat is the primary source of flour, with a higher protein content and a high amount of gluten-forming ability. Substack French flour is typically milled more finely than American flour, and because it has less gluten than American flour, pastries and breads baked with it are lighter and easier to digest. Molly J Wilk

Then there is the classification system, which tells you something about the philosophy behind it. French flour is milled under stricter standards, and the French grading system — known as the Type system — measures the ash content left after the wheat is milled, which reflects the amount of whole grain in the flour. Michele Gargiulo American flour is simply sorted by protein content and intended use — all-purpose, bread, cake — with far less precision or transparency about what is actually inside the bag.

American Flour

In the US, commercial flours are bleached or bromated — additives that preserve the product, accelerate processing, and whiten it. In European countries, the use of bromate is banned. Bleaching alters the taste of flour, and neither bleaching nor bromates are used in French flours. Food Republic American wheat is also frequently treated with glyphosate, a herbicide, and there has been growing concern that glyphosate heavily disrupts the gut microbiome, leading to digestive issues and other health concerns. In contrast, many countries in Europe have heavily restricted glyphosate use. Cob

US flour producers also tend to enrich their wheat with iron fortification — but the type of iron used is not easily absorbed by the body, leading to its accumulation in the gut and the promotion of undesirable bacteria growth. Cob Many people believe that wheat modification and the use of glyphosate explain the significant increase in gluten sensitivity among the American population — so it might not be the gluten itself that is the problem. Dinner with Caterina It may be everything surrounding it.

Feeling Better

I have begun using a brand called Francine. It is a popular flour used in France and is now a pantry staple. It is quite trickier to buy it here in the US, and is a bit more expensive. But, I have found we feel better eating this flour. Bread made with Francine sits differently than bread made with the flour I grew up using. Lighter, more tender, easier on the stomach. The dough behaves more gently. The result tastes more like wheat is supposed to taste — mild and slightly nutty and real, without the processed blankness that American flour can have. Since French flour is less processed, it retains more of an authentic wheat taste, and because of the lower gluten content, it is also easier to digest. Substack

Healthier Alternatives Worth Knowing

For those who want to go further, there are other flours worth considering alongside or instead of conventional wheat. Einkorn flour — one of the oldest cultivated wheats — has a lower gluten content and higher nutritional value than modern wheat and tends to be much easier to digest. Spelt flour is another ancient grain, milder and nuttier, with a different gluten structure that many people with wheat sensitivity tolerate better. Almond flour and oat flour eliminate wheat entirely and bring their own nutritional profiles — healthy fats and protein in the case of almond, soluble fiber in the case of oat. None of these are perfect substitutes for every recipe, but they are worth knowing and worth experimenting with, especially for anyone who has wondered whether it is really the gluten bothering them or something else entirely.

The choices made in a kitchen, even the quiet ones about which bag of flour to reach for, are not small. They add up over every meal, every loaf, every thing baked with love and fed to the people sitting at your table. That is worth paying attention to.