Flour comes from wheat – wheat is a type of grass grown all over the world for it is a highly nutritious and useful grain. It is one of the top three most produced crops in the world, along with corn and rice.
Flour is a powder made by grinding raw grains or roots and is used to make many different foods. The word “flour“ is originally a variant of the word “flower” and both words derive from the Old French fleur or flour, which had the literal meaning “blossom”, and a figurative meaning “the finest”. The phrase “fleur de farine” meant “the finest part of the meal”, since flour resulted from the elimination of coarse and unwanted matter from the grain during milling.
Various Types of Flour
Ten Types of Flours
- All-Purpose Flour – If a recipe calls simply for “flour,” it’s calling for all-purpose flour.
- Cake Flour – This flour has the lowest protein content (5 to 8 percent).
- Pastry Flour – This is an unbleached flour made from soft wheat, with protein levels somewhere between cake flour and all-purpose flour (8 to 9 percent).
- Bread Flour – This is a flour with a protein content of 12 to 14 percent, bread flour is the strongest of all flours, providing the most structural support.
- Self-Rising Flour – This is flour to which baking powder and salt have been added during milling.
- Whole-Wheat Flour – During milling, the wheat kernel is separated into its three components: the endosperm, the germ (the embryo) and the bran (the outer coating). In whole-wheat flours, varying amounts of the germ and bran are added back into the flour.
- Gluten-Free Flour – There is a wide variety of gluten-free flours available today, made from all sorts of grains, nuts and starches. Some of the most widely available are based on rice flour blended with tapioca and potato starch.
- Enriched Flour – During the process of making flour nutrients are lost. Some of these nutrients may be replaced during refining – the result is enriched flour.
- Hard Flour – Hard is a general term for flours with high gluten protein content; this flour may be used where a recipe adds ingredients that require the dough to be extra strong to hold together in their presence.
- Unbleached Flour – Unbleached flour is simply flour that has not undergone bleaching and therefore does not have the color of “white” flour.
Flour Production In Guyana
NAMILCO –
This is Guyana’s only milling company; it produces a wide range of top quality, factory fresh flour products for local consumption and export. The wheat is imported from Canada and the United States of America. It then arrives in Guyana by barge or ship and is off-loaded at the mill’s jetty. Here it is discharged using huge vacuum pipes from the cargo hold of the vessel. After this the wheat is transferred to a chain conveyor which carries it to the mill’s silos.
Tempering Process: The wheat is cleaned, scoured and tempered before the milling process begins. The moisture content of the wheat is increased to the optimum condition for milling in the Tempering Process. After the wheat has been in the tempering bins for up to 24 hours (depending upon variety), the milling process begins.
Milling Process: Wheat is processed first in the Break System; this consists of a series of corrugated steel break rollers which crush the wheat and gradually scrape the endosperm from the bran resulting in Middlings.
Middlings: The finer fractions of the middlings are graded in the sifting process by size and are sent on to the Purification System. Here machines called Purifiers take out as much of the bran particles as possible in the interest of producing the whitest flour. The results are then fed to the Reduction System. This contains a series of smooth steel rollers through which the purified middlings are fed, according to their particle size and purity.
Flour Dressing System: After each reduction passage the resulting flour is removed by sifting in the final stage of the process called the Flour Dressing System. In this system the ground stocks are separated on finely-woven nylon sieves in machines called Plansifiers. Any material not fine enough to sift through as flour is sent back to the appropriate part of the system for further processing.
Millfeeds: The wheat that is recovered as flour is approximately 75%; the remainder produces by-products of the milling process called Millfeeds. They are used as animal food. Another by-product is wheat germ – the embryo of the wheat seed, which is often produced for human consumption as it is valued for its health benefits being rich in B vitamins, vitamin E and protein.
Tip: The whitest flours are made from the purest stocks of the early passages through the reduction system.
Flour | Image Source: https://jovialfoods.com/product/organic-einkorn-all-purpose-flour-10lb/
Flours Produced By NAMILCO
- Maid Marian Multigrain Flour – Multigrain flour is a combination of white (wheat) flour with eight types of seeds and grains including wheat grain, which give a hearty texture and wonderful taste to recipes, especially baked goods.
- Maid Marian Whole Wheat Flour – A grain of wheat is comprised of the bran, germ and endosperm. Whole wheat flour is made from all three parts of the grain.
- Maid Marian Harvest High Fibre Whole Wheat Flour – Harvest high-fibre flour is a specially blended hard spring/winter wheat flour with edible wheat bran for healthy, digestible finished baked products.
- Maid Marian Parsad & Halwa (Sirnee) Flour Mix – This is made from the finest flour and wheat up with spices added.
- Maid Marian Pholourie QuickMix – This is a special blend of ground yellow peas, enriched flour and spices to provide mouth-watering snacks.
- Maid Marian Toasted Wheat Germ – This has a nutty, slightly sweet flavor and can be sprinkled over foods such as breakfast cereals, yoghurt, salads, cottage cheese, soups, vegetables and desserts.
- Maid Marian Creamed Wheat-Up – This is a great way to start your baby on semi-solid foods.
- Maid Marian Wheat-Up Breakfast Cereal – This is a specially selected stream of farina containing chunks of wheat endosperm and edible wheat bran, for a hot, nutritious breakfast cereal.
- Maid Marian Roti Mix – This is a medium strength flour that gives a soft, fluffy, “last all day” roti the right amount of leavening ingredients. Roti Mix is for oil (paratha) roti only.
- Maid Marian Self-Rising Flour – This is a strong flour designed to tolerate extreme aeration mixing techniques and extended kneading, for the development of finer quality baked goods, including sada roti.
- Thunderbolt Ouro Branco – This product is manufactured and packaged for the Brazilian market.
- Thunderbolt All Purpose Flour – This is a special blend of hard spring/ winter wheat which is the ideal flour specially tailored for household consumers.
- Thunderbolt Bakers Flour – This is a strong patent flour designed to tolerate extreme conditions, mixing techniques and extended kneading for the development of finer quality bread goods.
- Life Flour – This is a patent, low protein, wheat flour specially formulated for cakes and pastries.
- Supreme Specialities Flour – This is for fast food restaurants depending on their specifications e.g. pizzas and batter for chicken and other food products.
Namilco Products
Did You Know?
NAMILCO is short for National Milling Company of Guyana Inc. Located at Agricola, East Bank Demerara. Tel: 592- 233-2463, Email: [email protected], Website: http://www.namilco.com/, Managing Director: Mr. Bert Sukhai.
Guyana has a variety of flour to offer; whether it’s to bake a cake, bread or roti, the milling company NAMILCO produces these fine flour much to our satisfaction. This is a blessing to Guyanese since they love flour; some eat flour every morning by means of bread or every night by means of roti. It is an important product produced in Guyana both for the wants and needs of the people.
Article References:
- https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/packages/baking-guide/flour-101-guide-to-different-types-and-uses
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flour
- https://www.stabroeknews.com/2009/guyana-review/05/28/flour-milling-and-fortification/
- https://www.namilco.com/
- https://gmsagy.org/directory/national-milling-company-of-guyana/
