A half lifetime ago wife and I did a two day short course at KState University on wheat milling and baking. The course was basically designed for county extension agents to give them a feel for what was available at the college so they could direct potential students to the courses. It was a very interesting two days.

On day one we learned to mill wheat, what the different streams of flour were that came from the wheat (If I recall correctly I think it was around 7 for hard wheat and a lot more for soft wheat). These streams are then blended for different characteristics. Sometimes soft wheat can be blended with hard or vice versa to change the protein level in the end flour (soft wheat being low and hard wheat high protein). We learned soft wheat was mostly for pastries and baking that did not require yeast and hard wheat was more for bread flour with higher protein and gluten.

The second day was in the baking lab. An interesting thing was they used multiple bread machines to test different flours. The reason was not because they baked the ultimate bread but the fact that the process was exactly the same for each batch thereby making them a good test machine to test flour. But the purpose of this long winded post is because of a statement one of the instructors made about flour quality. He said (in commercial baking) the most important factor is not quality but consistency. They actually did not use the flour milled right there next door at the college because of the nature of teaching and experimentation the quality could vary (they sold all their flour milled very easily though). Where bakeries want each loaf to be a certain weight, certain size, certain raise under a certain time of proofing, the flour, yeast and all ingredients had to be as close to consistent as possible. The loaves had to be perfect and fit in the bag every time.

So for commercial baking, consistency of the flour is even more important than quality. That would not necessarily be the same desire for a private baker making heirloom bread.

Wife has done a LOT of baking and wheat flour use over the years. Had a small whole wheat grinder to grind her own whole wheat flour too. We don't eat any of it any more though because of our diet and feel better for it, but fresh hot bread with some real butter on it is a real treat to the taste buds.

John