Pasta Test: American vs Italian Flour

[@helenrennie]

I got several comments asking if it's possible to use the nutritional info to figure out the protein content. I don't believe that works. Nutritional info can be rounded. At least in the US, it can be off by quite a bit and still be considered acceptable. For example, King Arthur Unbleached all-purpose and King Arthur bread Flour both list 4g protein in 30g of flour. But the first one is 11.7% and the second one in 12.7%. 4g is 13.3% of 30g, so it's quite different from what these two flours report as the protein content. shop.kingarthurbaking.com/shop-img/labels/1569265981912.pdf shop.kingarthurbaking.com/shop-img/labels/1588701378822.pdf

[@umararuf99]

Thank you so much for the clarification!!!! I was sorely mistaken

[@ridiql5417]

as a european this helped me a lot. i had struggles understanding the different types of flour used in your (and pretty much any other cooking channel's) videos, since in europe we have totally different naming conventions for flour. btw i achieved perfect chewy results for egg pasta combining semola di grano duro and all purpose flour in equal parts.

[@ΠαναγιωτηςΠαπας-π7η]

Whatever Helena says take it to the bank. One of the best food channels out there. Never disappoint me with a recipe or technique.

[@reasons4171]

Ikr! She’s the best

[@umararuf99]

She’s a culinary genius

[@ΠαναγιωτηςΠαπας-π7η]

@@umararuf99 I think "culinary genius" is not right in her state. I believe is more like thousands of hours of hard work, testing, reading, searching, testing again, failing and succeeding and all over again seasoned with love for her job. A lot of love..

[@helend6774]

I totally agree. She tells you what to do and WHY. Understanding why is the key to cooking.

[@stevetrumbull4990]

Made my first pasta, successfully, a couple weeks ago thanks to finding you on the KZbin. 300g to 185g, no fail.

[@profcrabbe]

Holy cow! That video was nine minutes long, and packed in an hour’s worth of information, while being entertaining and resolving mysteries I have wondered about for many years. While there may be no perfect KZbin video, this was damn close.

[@RowlandGosling]

After doing just that (driving around for an hour to find 00 flour), I'm thrilled that King Arthur Bread flour is as good or better! It's so much easier to buy and a lot cheaper! Thank you Helen!

[@hanouf679]

I used all-purpose flour 😅

[@Blackwindzero]

You're more of a food scientist than all these theorists. I love that you do experiments instead of simply basing things off theory. If the scientific community did this at every corner, the world would be a better place. That's why I'm subbed to you.

[@Passionforfoodrecipes]

Thanks for *flouring* in so many great tips for us here Helen!

[@jjpp2216]

Oh thank you! Now I know why the sheet pasta I made on that fateful day in 2019 was so bad.

[@TheSlavChef]

Never tried making homemade pasta. Would totally try it after this video. Thanks for the tips!

[@whazzat8015]

It's messy , but fun. Really won't change your life, but lets you try some new forms. If you have clean up down , it's good. I like no knead bread for the near absent clean up. But I hate to clean the kitchen, and worse, ,six months later I have to do it again.

[@jean1228]

So much helpful information device delivered so wonderfully. I made one attempt at pasta a few years ago but it didn’t go well. Now I understand I why. I’ve been drawn to trying again and am so glad that I found your channel.

[@tmcche7881]

Good work. Thank you. ... never apologize for letting empirical evidence and experience guide your theory. That is real science. "It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong." ... Richard Feynman Nobel physicist

[@coachsteve.]

Always great info Helen! I noticed King Arthur also selling 00 flour recently (marketed as 00 Pizza flour). Interestingly, the ingredients listed are hard AND soft wheat.

[@ericwallhagen3146]

This explains why I had such a hard time shaping orcechiette the one time I tried to make it... made the mistake of using the same egg-dough recipe I use for all my other pastas (the same one I got from another of your videos btw, which works wonderfully!) Time to try it again.

[@Jessejrt1]

Thank You for this! Ive been a pasta and bread maker for years...and was still confused by the difference between European flours and American flours, protein content, grind, etc. So, yeah, just thank you for this discussion, i learned a lot in a few minutes!

[@bethsolomon7695]

What excellent timing! My husband surprised me with a kitchen aid pasta attachment, and I used your egg pasta video to make a carbonara we all loved a couple of days ago with AP. As you said, it was just fine, but I caught the bug to try other flours. I've just added BF to the list!

[@mamasolid]

Great job Helen! Pronunciation on point. Ciao 🇮🇹

[@mariaslasovicz6185]

Deal Helen, Mrs Poletto, one of Germany’s best Italian cooks uses 75 g of 00, 125 g Semolina finely ground on 2 eggs medium size (60 g each). This works for me perfectly every time. Nice bite, not too firm, but subtle.

[@usafan96soren20]

In Italy egg pasta (the better kinds) are made with semolina and 00 flour. So you make a better version 😍

[@da2nerboy]

Thanks, Helen. I've always made egg pasta with all purpose flour and been pretty happy with it. But I will try the bread flour.

[@notesfromleisa-land]

White Lily flour is a soft wheat flour...and one that I use for biscuits. It really makes a difference (when making biscuits). Love the uber-geek mode on measuring protein content and the differentials among standards (dry v. humidity). I used the the KA Bread Flour from your prior video, and I had really good results. Though I am not above doing my own food lab...I will take your word.

[@CalebWandering]

Ah! Thank you for sharing this. I can’t wait to try egg pasta with bread flour. If I don’t have to search for 00, that would be revolutionary!

[@jimmason8502]

Bread flour is about 1/4 the cost of "00".

[@FoodieFindings]

I've been looking at croissants recipes recently and find that trying to find US equivalents of French flours is pretty hard. I was trying to compare protein percent, but now knowing that percentages are calculated differently...I agree with your conclusion that just using the best flour you have and working with it makes sense, whatever works works, sometimes you won't know exactly why.

[@helenrennie]

That's why it's best to use a recipe developed specifically for the flour of your country. If you live in the US, don't bother looking up french croissant recipes. you can research them for the technique, but not the flour types or amounts.

[@FoodieFindings]

Do you think we in the US are doomed to sub-par croissants? I get the impression that French flour is just superior.

[@ThatBernie]

I've been making pasta at home for years, and I STILL benefit a lot from your videos! I had never thought of using bread flour to make pasta, and I just tried it today and it came out beautiful!

[@johnc3826]

I have been making pasta using your 300g flour to 185g eggs and water method for some time now with consistently good results. Using King Arthur AP flour, the pasta is easy to make with a perfect moisture content meaning that fettucine noodles do not stick to neighboring noodles. Last weekend we made pasta exactly the same way but with Anna Tipo OO extra fine flour. ( Our Supermarket carries Anna and Caputo.) The only observable difference using OO flour is in the texture of the cooked pasta. We think the KA flour is slightly better. Next time we will try the KA bread flour as you suggest. So far the moral of the story is there is not much difference. Thanks for sharing your methodologies and great recipes.

[@hanouf679]

How many eggs did you use?

[@karenmalmgren3238]

00 Flour added to whole wheat to make bread is wonderful. I know it is more expensive to make but it gives a lighter sandwich feel than usual when making a whole wheat and white bread flour loaf.

[@karenmalmgren3238]

I have made egg noodles from scratch using all purpose flour here in the states. Always comes out great. I use it in my soups. Will try bread flour next time and see if I can tell the difference.

[@trumpeteralex]

I recently made your egg pasta and in fact decided to test out some of these theories, particularly how much protein content made a difference in chewiness. In my case, I tried making pasta using typical all-purpose flour, some special "00" flour which likely had a similar protein content to that of my all-purpose (unfortunately, I didn't read more closely and got gypped by the "perfect for pasta" advertisement on the bag), and finally, bread flour as you did leave a note in the description of your egg pasta video (thank you!). The procedure was followed identically every time with some variability in egg weight, but final hydration was always the same. I also made sure to time myself for ten minutes to be sure kneading was the same. I let the dough rest a little longer than four hours each time and rolled it out with my pasta machine. Finally, they were all boiled for one minute. Final result? I could barely tell a difference between any of them. The all-purpose one had a very distinct all-purpose flour taste and the "00" had a smoother texture. However, the difference was practically indistinguishable and if eaten with a sauce, impossible to tell. As for the bread flour, once again, I found it was no chewier than the other two. I had my friend blind-taste the pastas and he couldn't distinguish a difference between them. I won't say that this is a final verdict on the matter given that I only tried three different flours which were easily available to me and didn't get my hands on real "00" flour made for pasta. However, if bread flour couldn't produce chewier results, I don't see myself spending that extra money. Perhaps if I had cooked them for only thirty seconds instead of a minute, I would have seen a difference, but for now? I'm sticking to using cheap all-purpose flour and will recommend people do their own experimentation.

[@helenrennie]

What a great experiment! I am so glad you tested it for yourself and figured out what works for you. I often hear people say, "this food expert said this, that food expert said that". Just because something tasted a certain way to me, doesn't mean it will taste that way to you.

[@trumpeteralex]

​@@helenrennie Especially since we come from different places (I'm not even from the US), it can be even more variable. But I agree with you - food experts are offering you their well-experienced opinion and I will tend to follow their advice as best as I can. But sometimes it's worth it to see if you, the average home cook, notice that difference :) Thank you for your wonderful videos! Stay safe!

[@FrankLinnemann]

Excellent video! Thanks! Just found your channel, subscribed!

[@floofytown]

This is an incredibly helpful video. Just...wow. You just cleared up SO MUCH.

[@ceyxerithacus9168]

Love your videos! Straight to the point and great presentation ❤

[@ivanivanivan6018]

Hi Helen, great chanel, great job👍. I wonder...is it posible to compesate flour low protein content with egg protein? e.g....adding an extra egg white to your wet ingredients while using soft wheat bread flour to add chewiness to your pasta? Thanks and greetings from Croatia

[@Mrmartinfender]

You saved me time and money trying to figure this out. You have great knowledge!

[@helengeethaarogyadas9135]

Thank you so much Helen. You always give great information .

[@ronaldmcghghy8896]

Hellen, I took a 680g bag of semolina flour and slowly ran it through my wheat grinder and followed your recipe and WOW!! Amazing!!

[@andreaschiavino5444]

Great video! Bad news is I had already purchased 2 packages of the Caputo after watching the egg pasta video. Guess I will have to have soft egg pasta until I get through them!

[@helenrennie]

If you purchased Caputo pasta and gnocchi flour that I recommend in the egg pasta video, that's the best one. The one I wasn't crazy about is Caputo 00 chef's flour, but I never recommended it.

[@gordonhamnett1289]

WOW!! Thanks for this analysis and the very practical recommendations!

[@Technoanima]

Thank you for that.

[@michellemartinez600]

Just out of curiosity, have you tried combining bread flour with the semola? I’ve seen different recipes that use equal parts of “00 pasta flour” and semola. I just ordered semola to make the water based dough. Excited to give it a try!

[@ignominia]

Hi Helen, no apologies needed your italian was great! In Italy Semolino (masculine) is a coarser grind of durum used to make broth soups and gratin gnocchi (alla Romana) while semola (di grano duro ) is flour. Semola (which is slightly yellow) can be added to white for bread and pasta. However the 00 is the least nutritional of flours and I personally never use it for anything preferring to use a 0 or all purpose. I have no clue about protein content but buy the organic flour produced and milled by my neighbors who grow it on our land so I am truly lucky for it! Great research though, ciao Niki from Tuscany

[@Javaman92]

AGH! I just got back from picking up my pasta machine and I swear someone had told me that Gold Medal AP was the best for egg pasta. So I picked up 5 lbs. Luckily, I already have KA bread flour. Thanks, I came on KZbin looking for your videos. I'm late on this one but I'll know for the future.

[@wallybeep]

Excellent, simply excellent.

[@daniel.lopresti]

I always use European "T65" flour (11% protein) for egg pasta, and the texture comes out perfect. As a starting point, I use 90g flour to 1 medium-sized egg (~50g, but I don't usually measure, I just add flour as necessary). Belgian-based Brit of Italian origin here :)

[@markknecht9416]

Great information. Thanks. When the pandemic started and my King Arthur bread flour was out of stock I was unable to make my standard bread which is patterned after a baguette I purchase at a local pizza place so I started experimenting. Nothing worked. King Arthur first started selling 3 pound All Purpose bags which I bought but the bread wasn't right so I contacted K.A. and asked the simple question "Is there anything I can do to make All Purpose more like Bread flour". The pointed me toward King Arthur Vital Wheat Gluten which adds protein content. I've done blind taste tests with my family and no one knows the difference. Instead of 500g of Bread flour I've settled on 493g All Purpose and 7g of V.W.G. (Roughly 1 table spoon) The great thing about this is that my wife and I only need one flour (All Purpose) in the house and I can experiment with whatever ratio I need for my breads. After this video I'm encouraged to try it with pasta.

[@helenrennie]

That's a very useful tip. I've heard of many people having great luck adding wheat gluten to AP flour.

[@foodgrowers1531]

Thank you. I tried the Semola flour you recommended before for eggless noodles and had spectacular results. Time to buy a grinder and local, durum wheat...

[@Chunbar]

Adam Ragusea was right in suggesting your channel. I'm here to stay!

[@ecospider5]

Wow you are great. Definitely subscribing

[@etherdog]

Thanks for the explanation of the different fineness of the semolina types, Helen. I found a couple of years ago a mill of organic flours in eastern Illinois, Janie's Mill, that has a fantastic range of wheat flours with high protein content.

[@johnkerechek6583]

Nicely done - thank you Helen.

[@truter5243]

I never really cared much which flour I used. Always just used what I have on hand since I'd be the one eating it. I kinda want to try cake flour and 00 flour just to see/taste if I can maybe find a difference. Most important part to my pasta (to me) is 1) Never go too thin. 2) Use egg-based pasta to get that nice bouncy texture

[@infinityryvus]

My family has sworn by "Hudson Cream" flour for generations. We will even travel to other states to get it. It makes the best biscuits and gravy you've ever tasted. They recently made it available online, but the shipping is outrageous.

[@jstaffordii]

My mom would buy 25 lbs of Hudson Cream while traveling annually and would have family pickup replenishment when they traveled. She swore by it for biscuits for decades.

[@rhondapahl3225]

Great job! Thank you

[@kevinwilliams1256]

thank you for doing all the research for us :-)

[@chrismurphy3683]

Possible science experiment (assuming the mentioned resources haven't already done this): 1. Make some defined portion of dough using a scale and the same amount of flour across the board 2. Knead for either a set duration or until it passes a certain springiness test (could also do no knead and let sit for 24 hours) 3. Rinse the dough to get at gluten content 4. Weigh each residual gluten ball I would expect higher protein content would yield a larger gluten ball by weight, so even if we can't get an exact percentage this way we can still see the relative amount of gluten each of the flours you mentioned produces. And because gluten content corresponds to "chewiness", I would expect the Tipo 00 to have the smallest residual gluten ball based on your taste experiment.

[@ThePotThickens]

This video is so timely. I just posed this problem and my tips on my channel. My biggest challenge as a plant based eater and cook is how to make an eggless egg pasta with the right texture. I don’t think it is possible to obtain a perfect result. But I find a little oil for the richness and the highest protein flour possible helps to get close. Your protein analysis is super helpful. Also, it should be slightly undercooked. I would appreciate any insight you might have to solve this problem. What’s a tagliatelle loving vegan to do?

[@helenrennie]

if I had to make a vegan ribbon pasta, I'd try a mix of semola and bread flours. I haven't actually tested that, but that's what my intuition tells me would give you the best texture.

[@ThePotThickens]

@@helenrennie Thanks. That is what I thought after I saw your description of the semolina in this video. I really appreciate your efforts to deep dive into these ingredients!

[@earlystrings1]

I’ve had very good luck with King Arthur bread flour for making Neapolitan-style high hydration pizza dough so I’m glad to hear it works well for egg pasta too.

[@alisonferry5989]

I always used bread flour before I tried others and I’ve found it the best. I’d be interested to see if adding more gluten to up the protein and increase the bite. I haven’t tried it yet. I need more eggs for experimenting

[@greglee1585]

Thanks Helen for this information. I have to say choosing the right flour is very confusing. You video cleared up a lot for me and gave me a better understanding, but in your conclusion I became confused. What egg based flour did you recommend ? Was it King Arthur Blue Bread flour? As a home Wood fired pizza lover, I always buy Caputo blue 00 flour in bulk. I then use that flour when making your ravioli and Fettuccine. Do you recommend I switch to King Arthur Blue Bread flour. I wonder if King Arthur Blue Bread flour would be good for my sourdough pizza dough as well over Caputo Blue. Thanks for helping me solve this new mystery

[@TravisTennies]

This is the best cooking channel for logical / fact based people. Those who don't understand things are happy with crap like R.Ray and dumbed down crap. ;)

[@99Nars]

amazing videos as always

[@mcomeslast]

Thank you! I’m getting ready to make kreplach and pelmeni. My favorite store brand of kreplach taste more like pasta than cooked flour dumplings (the taste I associate with all purpose flour). I had purchased both 00 flour and semolina before finding your pasta videos. I’m going yo ma batch with bread flour and a batch with 00 and see which I Ike best.

[@berniekida6715]

I loved seeing your hack for making cavatelli! I've seen forks and boards but never bamboo sushi rollers, nice! Other than that it was probably the most geeky video yet- and I'm okay with that. Before this video I had no idea that the various flour types were also about protein content...sort of? Anyway, next time I'm out of semolina I'm trying bread flour, thank you!

[@christavaracalli2168]

Helen, have you ever tried "King Arthur Neapolitan Style 00 pizza flour" for making egg pasta dough? I sent my poor husband around looking for 00 (based on your earlier video) and this was the closest we could get. I do have bread flour at home, and wish I had seen this video beforehand! But I was wondering if I should try the pizza flour. It lists the protein count per serving at 3 grams, and the ingredients list is "hard red wheat flour, soft wheat flour" but it does not give actual ratios. Thank you!

[@Hullj]

I knew I had achieved parental competency when my teenaged son would come home after school and want a snack. So he got out an egg, the King Arthur bread flour, and the Imperial pasta machine. Guess his flour choice was spot on! Thanks! I'll tell him. And now, in a horrible irony, he and his wife have to avoid gluten.

[@jcgirl3]

I am wheat intollerant. So I am working a lot with spelt flower. Could I use this for both kinds of pasta?

[@stefand1614]

In a choose between stainless steel skillet or carbon steel skillet, which would you prefer? You speak about stainless steel to be able to utilize the browned things that stick to the bottom for sauce-making. Is it the same with carbon steel skillet?

[@helenrennie]

I prefer stainless. carbon steel don't hold seasoning as well as cast iron and require constant re-seasoning, which is annoying.

[@bbb1007]

The Ravioli mold user manual I purchased from Marcato suggests 250 g 00 flour to 3 eggs.(about 150 grams from my experience..so .6 hydration)..and preferably half the flour is Durum wheat. I have no idea what 00 flour they are using but they say "soft wheat" (which means something different than US soft wheat) and Durum wheat is what I assume is finely ground . Semolina flour is different than durum flour that I have purchased...namely Semolina is much more coarsely ground. Soft wheat in Italian seams to me to mean anything that is not durum wheat. I am constantly amazed that something so basic is made so confusing by the flour industry.

[@jarryda]

Incidentally, a month or so ago I managed to find semolina flour in the store. It was $5/lb. It does make noodles better than bread flour in my observation; however, not five times the price better. It makes a noodle that's something like 10-15% better.

[@girl2ninja]

Did you use eggs with your semolina flour?

[@mfardin75]

For my fellow Canadians: our AP flour actually has higher protein content -- about the same as American bread flour. Take that as you will. I have used PC brand 00 flour and No Name AP flour before to make egg pasta and both have been tasty though I haven't done a side-by-side comparison.

[@ΠαναγιωτηςΠαπας-π7η]

I've heard that Canadian flour is among the best, if not the best. Can't figure out why as i never tried it. But I'll take the word of proper chefs on that.

[@bbb1007]

Varies by Brand not country

[@margaretcole6264]

Thank you. I have been looking for a good flour for my pasta. As a child I learned to make egg pasta but as I got older the texture of the pasta changed as flour changed. I don't know the reason for this.

[@joevalencic5275]

I have been using Pillsbury Best Bread flour and Gold Medal bread flours for about 14 years now for all of my breads and egg pasta...12.9% and 13.3% protein respectively. It’s about $2.50 per 5# bag at my local discount grocer. I found some 00 in a mega grocery store one time, and it made horrible pasta, as did several all purpose flours I tried. None of them had that "chew" that is part of the whole homemade pasta experience. Most folks aren’t aware of just how much science there is in bread and pasta making, and consequently aren’t always able to identify why their end products don’t always come out as expected. I’m a student of Peter Reinhart, and learned much about the science behind bread baking from his books and online tutorials. Wonderful bread doesn’t just happen...it’s a direct result of working with the bread formulas and learning how to tweak them to make the perfect loaf. Thanks for all that you do, Helen, to make us all better cooks, chefs and bakers. It’s appreciated more than you know.

[@SomethinAintRightHere]

I find (as you mentioned before about salt and butter) that russian / soviet country flours are much lighter as less glutenous. I often have to modify American/british recipes

[@gioiosa54]

Helen hello , Semola rimacinata is exactly what it says ,, coarse durum that is reground into a finer grained product .

[@MattapoisettinLA]

FYI-semola rimacinata is called fine sooji in Indian markets and is much cheaper.

[@sirdiealot7805]

There are even plenty of differences in flour types in the little triangle of German speaking countries, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Italy is a wholly different beast as it has a much warmer climate. Any recipe will need adjustment to the local flour. Those ash measurements are just one factor of many, it is likely difficult to make any accurate comparison.

[@starlakelsey2782]

I am going to need to watch this a few times to understand it better. You explained it well but there was a ton of info for my pea sized brain.

[@BlueJazzBoyNZ]

Helen get's to the practical focus of any cooking issue. Long may she Reign

[@Interestingworld4567]

Can you make please Keto pasta using Almond Flour? 😊💚

[@ParisaandAaron]

have you tried king 00 pizza flour?

[@johannesgutenburg9837]

I would be interested in looking at this same experiment done with asian style alkaline noodles

[@y2ksw1]

After having made egg and no egg pasta for one year every day, my personal conclusion is, that the best universal flour is common, or 0, flour. It contains yet enough fibers, develops beautifully gluten, is easy to find and prepared. No headache to find it. 00 flour is too fine, tends to need more kneading ... because the gluten particles need to connect for building the necessary texture and fine flour is not exactly favourable for building rapidly a solid gluten base. Bread flour is also a good choice. For my taste and experience, normal, common or 0 flour gets the same texture with a little more kneading, say, a couple of minutes. Common = all purpose 😊

[@truter5243]

I see you use the whole egg? I always just used the yolk. Is there a particular reason for this? I'm fearing that I might have been missing out on something all these years

[@helenrennie]

I use 2 eggs and 3 yolks. How much white vs yolk you use depends on how rich you want it to taste.

[@truter5243]

​@@helenrennie If you don't mind, would you touch on adding spinach or other ingredients in a future video? I found that especially with spinach it throws off your hydration rate completely. Took the weight of the spinach into account using my normal egg pasta recipe. I had to add about 3-4 fists full of flour to get the right consistency. Very odd

[@old-fashionedcoughypot]

I've made pizza from 100% durham wheat "Atta flour" bought in the 'Ethnic Food' section of Wal-Mart in Canada. lt is a naturally yellow tinted flour made for chapattis & rotis and other Indian baking that needed a little extra elbow grease to knead, but made the best pizza crust l have made to date. l think that this flour would make awesome pasta. Could you try & make a video in the future making pasta with that flour if it is feasible, please?

[@usafan96soren20]

Being italian I want to try king arthur bread flour so bad, I don't know whether it will be maybe between a 00 and a 0 or between a 0 and a 1. Seeing this chart has vastly opened my eyes, 12.7% protein in ka bread flour is 15% protein same as Italian 00 panettone flour! Now I understand why people make panettone, brioche, brioches bread and such stuff with bread flour. So the ka AP flour has 11.7g of protein in Italian flours is almost 14 how? Theoretically it shouldn't be weak, is there on the internet a w, p/l chart of ka flours?

[@BurningM]

So to people who might have trouble finding finely ground semolina but live in an area with an indian or Pakistani store in the area you can buy finely ground sooji (sooji is just hindi for semolina). Though I will give one warning I have no idea how different Italia semola and Indian sooji are.

[@mattv5281]

I have some 00 pizza flour, and I don't notice a significant difference between pizza made with that or with american bread flour.

[@SL-vs7fs]

Does the 00 confusion stem from 00 sugar - what we call confectioner’s sugar in the US?

[@safahmie]

What type of bread flour. There's so many different kinds.

[@dipp1511]

I made your water based pasta with bread flour, it was still good but definitely more dumpling-like rather than pasta.

[@helenrennie]

That's not the best use for breast flour. it's in the egg pasta that it really shines.

[@earlystrings1]

As an aside, the Nutrition Facts labeling required by US law lists a protein (I.e. gluten) content for flour as a weight per serving. For example, my bag of King Arthur bread flour says it has 4g protein per 30g serving, which is 13.33 percent protein (the front of the bag states 12.7 percent, close but not exact). I wonder if this makes it possible to compare European flours packaged for the US market, at least roughly?

[@helenrennie]

I got several comments asking if it's possible to use the nutritional info to figure out the protein content. I don't believe that works. Nutritional info can be rounded. At least in the US, it can be off by quite a bit and still be considered acceptable. For example, King Arthur Unbleached all-purpose and King Arthur bread Flour both list 4g protein in 30g of flour. But the first one is 11.7% and the second one in 12.7%. 4g is 13.3% of 30g, so it's quite different from what these two flours report as the protein content. shop.kingarthurbaking.com/shop-img/labels/1569265981912.pdf shop.kingarthurbaking.com/shop-img/labels/1588701378822.pdf

[@lauralee4767]

Incredibly helpful explanation for flour types, especially “00”, but I’ve found in bread making, and in trying this recipe, that bread flour needs more moisture than all-purpose. Can’t say about “00”. I need to add an additional 2 Tbsp. just to get the dough to come together, and when kneading, I could tell it was still slightly dry and just wet my hands. Has anyone else found bread flour requiring more liquid to create a dough? #realcomment

[@georgepagakis9854]

My experience with with flour is mostly with Pizza dough but I can tell you what I have learned. 00 flour is great if you are making pizza in a 800 F wood oven. When you use it in the oven you never get a nice color on the pizza. Bread flour on the other hand. Robin Hood to be exact. is amazing for making pizza. You can burn it really fast but it works great for home oven. The chew of the flour is amazing. Bread flour and 00 pizza flour a really high in protein and they call them strong flour in Italy. I used all purpose flour to make pizza, and you can get amazing color and it doesn't burn as easy as bread flour but the chew is not the same and it won't stretch as well as using bread flour. I went pretty nuts too trying to figure out all this 00 stuff and at the end of the day I dropped 00 altogether and I just use Robin Hood bread flour and I get amazing pasta and pizza dough. I was hopping you would do this video but in Pizza but at the end of the day its pretty much the same thing. Higher protein stronger flour and easy stretch. Lower protein is a soft flour and is probably better for pastry. I really don't like that the Italians have about 4 different types of 00 flours and none of them are really explained properly. There is a formula that you can use, All flour write the protein content and serving for 1/4 cup, use this formula to figure the amount of protein in the bag. For every flour there is a protein content X gram and nutrition size in 1/4 cup to (gram) This is what you see for Robin Hood Bread flour 1/4 cup (30 grams) Protein 4g this is the formula 4 ÷ 30 = 13.3 protein content which makes it a strong flour. I will never buy 00 flour again since I found Bread flour to be the best pizza dough for the oven and great for egg pasta! I figured out the formula because I like math but here is reference where they talk about the same thing. thesolitarycook.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/lets-bake-bagels-part-1/

[@helenrennie]

Thanks for letting me know about the Robin Hood flour. I keep hearing how good it is. I wish it was easier to find in the US. I don't believe the nutritional info to figure out the protein content of the flour is very accurate. Nutritional info can be rounded. At least in the US, it can be off by quite a bit and still be considered acceptable. For example, King Arthur Unbleached all-purpose and King Arthur bread Flour both list 4g protein in 30g of flour. But the first one is 11.7% and the second one in 12.7% and according to your formula, they'd be 13.3%. shop.kingarthurbaking.com/shop-img/labels/1569265981912.pdf shop.kingarthurbaking.com/shop-img/labels/1588701378822.pdf

[@SL-vs7fs]

@@helenrennie as you might know Helen, this is a problem of significant figures. Not sure of USDA rounding guidelines but mathematically 4 is anything from 3.5 to 4.4 (26%!), 4.0 on the other hand is 3.95 to 4.04 (2.3%). Aaah, to live in a world where error margins were < 1.0% by convention.

[@georgepagakis9854]

@@helenrennie Math doesn't lie but the link you gave me is not exactly as they state. If you look closely at the nutrition facts it clearly says the magic word "ABOUT" 30 servings per container. If you also look at the percentage of all the values they do not show you decimal points. They seem to round everything off to the nearest number. That would make sense because the average person is not going to get confused with decimal points so they keep it clean. Besides master backers have their secrets which is easy, practice, practice, practice, practice until you make it perfect. if you take king Arthurs figures you would do this, weight multiply by percentage they give you 30 x.127 = 3.81 gram of protein they round the 3.81 to 4 percent this is why when you do the math you would have to factor in the "ABOUT" I am pretty sure its the same thing with all the flour companies, instead of confusing with decimal points they round to the nearest number thus making things cleaner.

[@giuseppecapizzi3736]

Caputo's Italian website lists the protein content for "Cuoco" flour to be 13% and a W of 300/320: www.mulinocaputo.it/en/flour/la-linea-cucina/cuoco According to the Italian Wikipedia entry for "flour" proteins and ashes in Italy are measured on the dry product: it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farina This means that, in European terms, KA's bread flour has ~15% proteins, which justifies the chewiness. What I don't get is how the "pasta & gnocchi" flour ends up being more chewy, as Caputo's Italian website claims it has 12.25% proteins and W 260/280 www.mulinocaputo.it/en/flour/la-linea-cucina/pasta-fresca-e-gnocchi!

[@helenrennie]

It's a mystery to me too

[@jimmason8502]

Hi Helen. I use a combination of 00 and semolina flour to make my egg pasta (160g "00" and 40g semolina and 6 egg yolks and one whole egg+10g olive oil) and honestly, it's perfectly chewy rolled out to #5 on my Kitchen Aid roller or my hand cranked machine. For lasagne sheets I go to #4. I've even made ribbon pasta (tagliatelle and pappardelle) with AP flour and have had decent results. I don't think it's as much to do with the protein content of the flour as it is with the number of eggs you add, eggs being protein. In one of Marcella Hazens's books she says use AP flour, but Giorgio Locatelli uses 00 and lots, lots of eggs. There are probably a million recipes and they're all correct, such is the nature of Italian food. Find one that works and stick with it.

[@Marmarikaa]

Have you tried durham flour for any type of pasta?

[@helenrennie]

Durum flour is semola (sometimes called semolina in the US). It's what I use for water based pasta.

[@Marmarikaa]

I like durham flour for pasta as semolina is thicker. Thank you for your wonderful videos! You encourage good cooking.

[@TheArteditors]

where I live (Cyprus) has a slight protein variation, high protein flour is around 12.7-13% and normal or all purpose flour 12.5% so why bother with high protein flour? I have even seen cake flour or soft flour with 12.5%. So all I do is add a bit of corn flour/starch (depends which side of the Atlantic you are) for cakes and biscuits and I ceased caring for bread flour. problem solved.normal flour with a higher protein is good for pasta or pizza doughs, because if you opt for 'bread flour' you pay more. same for cake flour, I add the no gluten starch and I pay the same but at least it's one kind of flour in the house. no you don't get too technical, novices need to know and knowledge must be spread and shared.

[@1newbert]

Question? What would the coarser Duram flour be used for? Baking?

[@BliffleSplick]

Breakfast, like grits?

[@1newbert]

@@BliffleSplick grits are corn not wheat. Believe me, as a southern boy I know the difference.

[@giuliobonomo1884]

In italy at least in my region, it's really rare to find Durum (so Semola/Semolino) in a recipe, generally speaking we use it to shape pizza or pasta doughs so that they don't stick to the table. What we really use is Semola Rimacinata (for Focaccia, pasta etc) as regular Semola is way too coarse.

[@daniel.lopresti]

@@1newbert You can make a breakfast dish simply called semolina, with coarse semolina (durum wheat) flour - it comes out similar to grits. In Indian cuisine it's used a lot for sweets but also savoury dishes (upma, sooji halwa, etc.)

[@1newbert]

@@daniel.lopresti in America it would be closer to Farina

[@PhotonFlightTeam]

only this: how I envy Jason!

[@asdfrozen]

Wikipedia says 00 flour is more like American pastry/cake flour. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flour#Flour_type_numbers

[@helenrennie]

I never thought I'd say that, but wikipedia might be wrong on this one ;) or to put it more accurately, oversimplified.

[@dipp1511]

cake flour is usually more powdery and fine than all purpose and bread flour, but 00 just refers to the ground and not the protein content

[@yodaman4674]

Wish I found this channel before trying to make homemade lasagna for Valentine’s Day. Let’s just say it turned out just ok but not great.

[@Moroccantasty]

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