Cooking For Engineers

[Michael Beckman]

I studied culinary arts in France and had an excellent boulangerie teacher.
I love the recipes I worked with there, but the flour itself was so different.
I have access to a great international catalogue of wholesale flours at Chef's Warehouse, but even they don't know what I'm talking about when I say flour type 65, for example. In short, type 45 is for pastry; type 00 is for pizza/pasta; type 55 is as close as you get to AP; type 65 is the great base flour used in most French breads; not sure anymore what type 80 is. Is anyone out there familiar with this system? Where can I get the authentic flours that I need?

[Dilbert]

here's an extract from my notes - sorry about the dots but column formatting seems not possible.

Ash.......Protein.....Wheat flour type
.............................US..........................German.........French
~0.4%....~9%......pastry flour...................405..........45
~0.55%..~11%....all-purpose flour...........550..........55
~0.8%....~14%....high gluten flour...........812..........80
~1%.......~15%....first clear flour............1050.........110
>1.5%....~13%....white whole wheat....1600.........150

[Jim Cooley]

Does the numbering system reflect the particle size of the flour?

[Dilbert]

Jim -

don't believe so. the German system evolved into DIN numbers reflecting ash content - the French system seems to be German ash /10.

[Jim Cooley]

Ah, so. Thanks!