Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hiya! Once the grain has grown, the next step on the Grain Chain is to see how it's milled
to make flour. So for that we need... you got it - a mill! Now when you think of mills
you might think of wind mills, or water wheels... but the mills today are much MUCH bigger.
Whilst those old types of mills did the job pretty well for thousands of years, the flour
they made was rather coarse. Modern mills, like this one, make much finer flour and a
lot of it which is good because they need to grind over five million tonnes of grain
every year. So here's how they do it -- first of all they
have to clean the wheat and for that they need...
Magnets! Yeah, I know, sounds crazy -- you'd think it would be soap or something like that
wouldn't you? But magnets and other machines help extract any metal and stones from the
grain. They wouldn't be nice to eat. Next it gets a blow dry...
And those air currents also carry away dust. Now time for the grains to have a shower -- hope
they've brought their shower gel!
The water softens the outer bran layer which is important because this layer is too tough
to make good flour -- the bit that's wanted is underneath -- the endosperm.
Now the grain is nearly ready to be milled - it just needs GRISTING! It's a weird word
isn't it but it just means mixing different types of grains in different proportions to
make different kinds of flour.
Now the real fun starts! The grain is finally ready for milling -- making the flour -- this
normally happens in three stages. First the grains are cracked to make the outer coat
even looser. Then it's rolled to release the endosperm and the wheatgerm. And finally,
it's sieved to collect the different parts.
And all that milling's making me hungry! Time to get back to the kitchen, I've got a terrific
recipe for a loaf fit for a king! Fresh out of my oven today is a great Coburg
loaf-- it's a round, crusty loaf which always have a really deep cross cut into the top
of it. Smells great! It looks a bit like a crown
-- some people think it got its name after the wedding of Queen Victoria as her husband
came from a place called Saxe-Coburg. Mmmm. It's FANTASTIC! See you soon!
George Explores... the Grain Chain, with support from farmers and millers across the UK