Like just about everyone except Forrest Gump, I don't trust authoritative statements. One tells me there is no chance of rain, I'm going to hold out my hand and look at the sky. One promises economic plenty, I'm going to squirrel away some pennies. We've all seen enough statements that turn out to be self-serving and less than totally true, or, at best, based on faulty premises or shaky reasoning, that we have reason for a general attitude of disbelief. Apparently, that extends to flour.
In an article from the New York Times web site, it's noted that the Smucker Company has purchased the company which has made White Lily flour for more than one hundred fifty years, and is moving operations from where it's been made all those years to two plants further north. A number of southern bakers are concerned that the flour made at these other locations won't be as light as that made at the original plant. I've never seen White Lily, but from what I gather, it is noticeably different than other all-purpose flours -- whiter and lighter, the result of being ground from low-protein, low-gluten red winter wheat, using only the heart of the grain, then grinding that multiple times. The result is a light, silky flour. The company promises that the new flour will be identical to the original, and that you won't be able to tell the difference. "But in a blind test for The New York Times, two bakers could immediately tell the old from the new." And that was just from touching the flour. Baking just confirmed the difference.
Damn Yankees.
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