One thing I’ve remained snooty over, as years go by, is the quality of my flour. I’ve always known I can get it cheaper than I’ve been paying, but persist in the possibly mistaken belief that you get what you pay for. There’s clearly superior flour out there, as demonstrated by a reader who very expensively sent me a bag of King Arthur bread flour not long ago, but all-purpose flour really seems to be pretty much all-purpose flour.
I’ve recently been forced to put that to the test. Down to my last 25-pound sack and very nearly broke, I’ve decided to see if I’m really missing a bet with the $1.50 bags of house-brand flour available at the local dollar store.
And you know what?
It makes bread. If I go ahead and stock back up with this stuff, I can get a hundred pounds for $30. Probably worth doing.
Meanwhile Ian and Karl are investigating one of the really important questions: Do eggs cooked in Fireclean taste like freedom?
The price of that FireClean oil somehow brings to mind the firewood in your previous post.
Indeed. If people are really willing to give me $40 for two ounces of cooking oil, I’ll be happy to sell them as much as they want.
That flour package says “Enriched” – do you have any idea exactly WHAT it is enriched with?
Try not ending THAT sentence with a preposition. 🙂
I believe the phrasing would be, “With exactly what is it enriched?” 🙂
And I haven’t the foggiest idea. They pretty much all say that.
If you are a hermit,living in the desert,trying to save money,and trying to stay under the radar and be left to yourself,I think you should buy the cheapest flour that will bake edible bread.
But that’s just me.
From Wiki . . .
According to the FDA, a pound of enriched flour must have the following quantities of nutrients to qualify: 2.9 milligrams of thiamin, 1.8 milligrams of riboflavin, 24 milligrams of niacin, 0.7 milligrams of folic acid, and 20 milligrams of iron. The first four nutrients are B vitamins. Calcium also may be added; this must be to a minimum level of 960 milligrams per pound if calcium is mentioned in the labeling.
Ooops, forgot the link . . .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enriched_flour
We grind our own flour as needed. Haven’t eaten any store-bought bread for many years.
🙂
I looked into the economic aspects of grinding my own wheat here some years ago. Turns out wheat berries have the advantage of a virtually indefinite shelf life, but the disadvantage of costing several times more than ground flour. Can’t say why that is. And of course around here it’s only available online. So all in all I never could see my way clear to setting up for home grinding.
Any difference in taste or shelf life of the baked bread?
Seems a little bland, but not bad. Can’t speak to shelf life, which is never very good. My bread always puts out the welcome sign for mold spores.
Differences? Yes, a few.
The flavor is beyond compare. We include rolled oats along with the wheat berries in the processor and honey in the final mix. Mmmmmmm, etc.
That said, the shelf life is brief. Best when eaten within a day or two. After that it becomes material for grilled cheese sandwiches or something else. It dries out and becomes crumbly, rather unappetizing. Also will begin to show the green furry stuff. Thus, you are faced with making small, two-day batches or freezing the finished product until needed . . . which is probably not convenient to Joel’s situation.
Processed flour does have the advantage of having the germ removed which pretty much eliminates the “going rancid” problem. We have never tried buying a large quantity of it to check this out because we don’t mind grinding our own and the results are so wonderful.
In addition, we buy oats and wheat in 50-pound bags, and already have a pricey processor which is a cost consideration. We have not considered a hand-crank mill because the processor is used for many other things so bread is not the only way to justify its cost.
Several considerations, indeed.
Not much “rise” in those loaves. You tryin’ to make matzo or sumthin’?
}:-]
I like’em firm. Too much rise and they fall apart too easy.