I don't know about you, but when I see an open jar of flour (maybe with a scoop in it, and a little flour on the counter for good measure), I think of baking - muffins, homemade bread, pizza dough, pies...
Flour is another staple of the staples which dates back to the days when grunting in loincloths in public was not part of a hazing ritual. As you probably know, flour is a powder made of grains, seeds, or roots. And, as you also suspected, flour ain't just for baking.
The main use of flour for me, is as a thickening agent. Flour is a key component of a roux - which you wouldn't even notice in stews, sauces, and some soups, unless it was missing. Marie-Antoine Carême, 'the king of chefs, and the chef of kings', and one of the first ever celebrity chefs, classified sauces into four 'mother sauce' categories (Béchamel, Espagnole, Velouté, Allemande) as part of his newfangled 'haute cuisine'. Three of these four sauces are made with a roux. A roux is similar to a beurre manié, except that a beurre manié isn't cooked and is added after cooking to thicken. Where would you be without dextrinization?
Another main use of flour is for frying. Flour is used for both breadings (dry, for frying or baking), and batters (wet, for deep-frying). The world would be a sad, sad, skinny place without fried chicken and tempura shrimp. Oh, and as a side note, when you're breading meat you always need to go from wet to dry - meat to flour to egg to breadcrumbs.
This superhero of the kitchen even has some non-culinary uses. Next time you bake a batch of aunt Mabel's oatmeal cookies, use some flour to get the oil off your poker cards. I've seen mixed info on using it to put out grease fires, so for safety sake I'd say don't try it. You can however make your significant other happy by cleaning the sink, and then whipping up a batch of play doh to keep the kids at bay.
Astounding!
GG
excellent post, really appreciate the thorough historical research. what kind of flour is used to make whole wheat bread? is that an unrefined flour?
ReplyDeletedo you ever use cornstarch as a thickener, or is that sacrilegious in the world of professional chefdom?
ReplyDeletep.s. as flour dust is highly flammable, only moist/dense packed flour would smother a fire without incident. odds are that if you store your flour properly (dry), chucking the stuff at flames will likely cause airborne particles to catch fire (albeit not with explosive force like that of dust ignited in a silo). if you want to throw something at a fire, reach for baking soda instead. ~
Thank you both!
ReplyDeleteHarold - Whole wheat bread is made with whole wheat flour - meaning the entire grain, not just the inner part (endosperm).
Leslie - You clearly know your stuff. I don't think using cornstarch is sacrilegious at all. Flour and cornstarch are essentially the same thing (starches), just coming from different plants. Cornstarch does have more thickening power than flour and doesn't contain gluten. Flour is more traditionally used, and a bit heavier, but cornstarch is a bit trickier to work with.
Experiment!
GG