Flour
Flour is a fine powder typically derived from ground grains, most commonly wheat, and serves as a fundamental ingredient in many diets worldwide, particularly in bread-making. The origins of flour can be traced back approximately thirty thousand years, with evidence of ancient tools used for grinding starchy plants discovered in Italy, Russia, and the Czech Republic. Initially, prehistoric humans consumed a diet primarily composed of meat but gradually began incorporating ground grains, leading to the development of agriculture around thirteen thousand years ago in fertile regions like the Middle East.
As societies evolved, so did milling practices, transitioning from manual grinding to more sophisticated methods, such as water and wind-powered mills established by the ancient Romans and later innovations during the Industrial Revolution. Modern milling techniques involve multiple roller mills that refine wheat kernels into flour while removing by-products. Flour is often enriched with essential nutrients to enhance its nutritional value and shelf-life.
Various types of flour exist, each suited for different culinary applications, such as all-purpose, bread, and pastry flour. Wheat flour alone supports the diets of one-third of the global population, and the flour industry plays a significant role in agriculture and food production. The widespread availability and use of flour have fundamentally shaped human diets and contributed to cultural and economic development throughout history.
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Flour
Flour is a fine powder ground from grains, most typically wheat, and used to make bread, a staple food in nearly every human culture. The discovery of flour is believed to have occurred around thirty thousand years ago. Archaeologists digging in modern-day Italy, Russia, and the Czech Republic in the late 1980s found ancient tools that still had traces of flour on them. Markings suggested that they were used as mortars and pestles to grind the roots of starchy plants.
Brief History
Prehistoric humans ate a diet based mainly on meat, but they also mixed water and grains to make gruel. The next logical step was to heat it, so they began cooking it on heated rocks. At some point, they discovered that grinding hard-to-digest seeds into a finer form made it easier to eat, so flour was added to their diet in addition to wild grasses and berries. The grinding process took thousands of years to perfect. Archaeologists and historians believe it likely led to the invention of the wheel. The discovery of flour also led to economic prosperity, as areas where grains could be harvested, ground, and baked led to the development of early settlements and communities. Before that, man was largely nomadic, moving constantly to wherever food could be found. When the fertile regions of the Middle East and Mesopotamia were discovered thirteen thousand years ago, early humans began burying grains and grasses in the ground to protect their food sources from seasonal changes. This was the beginning of agriculture.
As settlements and cities began to grow, it became impractical to hand-grind massive amounts of grain. The ancient Romans developed and constructed large cone mills to grind grains into flour. Around 25 BCE, water mills powered by paddlewheels began to turn millstones. This technology was still in use as late as the Middle Ages but was later replaced by windmills, a grinding technology still in use today in parts of Europe.
The industrial age brought about more technological advances. London's first steam mill, the Albion Mill, was constructed in 1786. Barges on the Thames River emptied unprocessed grains into the basement of the building. Inside, two steam engines rotated twenty pairs of millstones. The steam-powered mill was one of the most productive in the world, but the building was destroyed by fire just five years after it was built.
The technology eventually made its way across the Atlantic to the United States, courtesy of inventor Oliver Evans. In 1780, Evans joined the flour-milling business with his brothers in a Wilmington, Delaware. A natural mechanic, he began to analyze the machinery and started working on several improvements to it. Evans eventually automated the entire milling process by inventing, among other devices, the grain elevator, conveyor, drill, hopper boy, and descender. Although Evans had received patents for his inventions from the US government and held exclusive rights to the technologies, he had trouble upholding his rights and never made any money from his work.
Modern milling techniques still use the basic principles that Evans first automated. By repeatedly grinding and sifting the grains, wheat kernels are gradually reduced into flour. Kernels are fed through roller mills that rotate against one another at different speeds, separating the wheat into bran (grain husk), starch (flour), and germ (the reproductive part of the plant) with the ultimate goal of removing and separating the starch so the flour contains almost no by-products. Multiple roller mills with increasingly finer settings further separate the components.
Since 1941, flour has been enriched with nutrients to improve its shelf-life. Nutrients added include iron and the B vitamins riboflavin, niacin, and thiamine. Some flours are bleached using chlorine gas and benzoyl peroxide to brighten their color. According to the North American Millers Association, bleaching mimics the natural oxidation process that occurred back in the days when flour was allowed to age.
Impact
Wheat is a staple in the diets of one third of the world's population. According to the Gallery of Flour Sacks, a flour museum in Germany, 320 million tons of wheat flour are consumed by humans alone each year. A US wheat mill of average size can produce as much as one million pounds of flour daily, with larger ones producing two to three times that much. According to Moises Naim, writing for The Atlantic, agriculture employs 20 percent of the world's population, and in recent years production has reached record levels. Almost any type of grain or nut can be ground into flour, the various types of which have different culinary uses.
All-purpose flour, the kind that most people keep in their pantries, is best for quick breads, some yeast breads, cakes, cookies, and pastries. Bread flour has a higher protein content than all-purpose flour and is commonly used in commercial baking. Cake flower has a low protein content and is used for cakes, cookies, and crackers. Self-rising flour is basically the same as all-purpose flour but with a leavening agent, such as baking powder, already added into it. Pastry flour has a lighter consistency than other flours and is primarily used for making desserts. Semolina and durum flours are used to make pasta and other noodles. Whole-wheat flour, sometimes called stone-ground or graham flour, is less refined than other flours, as it contains parts of the germ and the bran. Gluten flour has the highest protein content of all flours, at 40 to 45 percent. It is used in the production of high-protein breads.
Without flour, the human diet would be dramatically different. Hunger would be more prevalent, and many agricultural and industrial innovations might not have happened. As demand for flour increased, production methods were forced to change, which created an entire industry around a staple food for most of the world's population.
Bibliography
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"Evans, Oliver." Encyclopedia.com, 2000, www.encyclopedia.com/people/science-and-technology/technology-biographies/oliver-evans. Accessed 29 May 2017.
"The History of Flour: From the Mortar to the Industrial Mill." The Gallery of Flour Sacks, www.art-and-flour.de/english/history.html. Accessed 29 May 2017.
"Humans Made Flour 30,000 Years Ago." Scientific American,19 Oct. 2010, www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/humans-made-flour-30000-years-ago-10-10-19/. Accessed 29 May 2017.
Naim, Moises. "The World Is Full of Grain." The Atlantic, 14 Oct. 2014, www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/10/the-world-is-full-of-grain-agriculture-economy/381413/. Accessed 29 May 2017.
"Stone Age Food: Ingredients and Diet." Ancientcraft.co.uk, www.ancientcraft.co.uk/Archaeology/stone-age/stoneage‗food.html. Accessed 29 May 2017.
"Types of Flour." North American Millers Association,www.namamillers.org/education/types-of-flour/. Accessed 29 May 2017.
"Wheat Milling Process." North American Millers Association, www.namamillers.org/education/wheat-milling-process/. Accessed 29 May 2017.
"Working Flour Windmill in Holland." YouTube, uploaded by edmondhollandvideo, 20 Dec. 2011, www.youtube.com/watch?v=7‗xdmzvCSw8.