Among the various adjectives that are used to describe dough, we find the notion of tenacity. For a baker, the “tenacity” of dough is its capacity to "resist" deformation. We will also discuss "consistency" to illustrate the fact that dough will be more or less hard or soft. Both terms are correct because tenacity is one of the components of consistency (along with viscosity, extensibility, elasticity and stickiness).
The early 20th century was a time of extensive research to better understand—and better control—the properties of flours used to produce quality breads. In 1920, Marcel Chopin contributed to this effort and filed a patent describing the Extensometer.
"Milling in laboratories is more than just the simple transformation of grain into flour." By saying that, we wish to emphasize the fact that there is a great wealth of information to use during this operation.
Extensibility is a material's ability (in our case, dough) to stretch without breaking. Extensibility should not be confused with elasticity! These are two different concepts. Dough can be extensible and not elastic or extensible and very elastic...and in bread making, the results will be quite different.
There are many ways to measure the quality of flour. We can analyze its composition (protein, humidity, etc.), measure a specific component (gluten, starch, etc.) or even, and in order to more closely test the conditions of use, analyze the dough.
How does a mill work today? Remember that these are real factories which are very precise and inevitably quite different from one another. Nevertheless, they must all follow the main principles which we'll present here...
Properly preparing wheat for milling is as important in the plant as it is in the laboratory. Preparing wheat for milling involves two main actions: cleaning the grain and tempering the grain before milling.
There are a number of standardization organizations, whether international (ISO, CEN, AACC, ICC, etc.) or national (Afnor, GOST, IRAM, GT, etc.), but what actually are standards? What are they used for?
The purpose of a quality control laboratory is to...control quality. What does it mean? This question is important because quality control often translates to "specifications."
