You most likely have several cookbooks available to you, also in multiple languages, on how to prepare your dishes, whether it's bread, pasta, or even pizza.
Usually, one of the classic dilemmas faced is identifying flours, indicated by the seemingly obscure Italian, German, or French classification.
In Europe, flours are mainly distinguished by their mineral salt content percentage. Each country then uses a specific designation (in Italy, soft wheat flours are called 00, 0, 1, 2, and whole wheat; in Germany, they are called 405, 550, 812...; in France, T45, T55, T65, T80... and so on).
We will see later how to decode these designations; what we need now is a simple method to memorize them.
So imagine you burn a 100 g sample of flour in an oven at 900°C. What remains is a pile of ash mainly composed of mineral salts. The weight of the residual ash (expressed numerically in milligrams) simply represents the type of flour in the German classification (and also Austrian and Swiss).
The French, to differentiate themselves, burn a 10 g sample of flour (instead of 100 g), and the numerical value identifying their flours also represents the weight of the residual ash (which will obviously be one-tenth of the numerical value identifying the German flours).
Paradoxically, the least clear classification is the Italian one, because to know how much ash 100 g of "00" flour will produce, you need to consult the following table:
ITALIAN FLOUR CLASSIFICATION (Presidential Decree 09-02-2001, No. 187):
Type Ash (in milligrams per 100g of flour)
Soft wheat flour type 00 < 550
Soft wheat flour type 0 < 650
Soft wheat flour type 1 < 800
Soft wheat flour type 2 < 950
Whole wheat flour 1300-1700
Knowing that a "00" flour produces a maximum of 550 mg of ash, it becomes easy to identify the equivalent German or French flour:
GERMAN FLOUR CLASSIFICATION (DIN 10355 standard):
Type Ash (in milligrams per 100g of flour)
Flour 405 < 500
Flour 550 510-630
Flour 812 640-900
Flour 1050 910-1200
Flour 1600 1210-1800
Flour 1700 < 2100
FRENCH FLOUR CLASSIFICATION (Calvel, The Taste of Bread)
Type Ash (in milligrams per 100g of flour)
Flour 45 < 500
Flour 55 500-600
Flour 65 620-750
Flour 80 750-900
Flour 110 1000-1200
Flour 150 > 1400
By consulting the tables, we can recognize the main equivalences as follows:
Italian flour type '00' = German type 405 = French type 45 (T45)
Italian flour type "0" = German type 550 = French type 55 (T55)
Italian flour type "1" = German type 812 = French type 65 (T65)
Italian whole wheat flour = German type 1600 = French type 150
By applying the same criterion, we can compare not only wheat flours but also rye and spelt flours.
Usually, one of the classic dilemmas faced is identifying flours, indicated by the seemingly obscure Italian, German, or French classification.
In Europe, flours are mainly distinguished by their mineral salt content percentage. Each country then uses a specific designation (in Italy, soft wheat flours are called 00, 0, 1, 2, and whole wheat; in Germany, they are called 405, 550, 812...; in France, T45, T55, T65, T80... and so on).
We will see later how to decode these designations; what we need now is a simple method to memorize them.
So imagine you burn a 100 g sample of flour in an oven at 900°C. What remains is a pile of ash mainly composed of mineral salts. The weight of the residual ash (expressed numerically in milligrams) simply represents the type of flour in the German classification (and also Austrian and Swiss).
The French, to differentiate themselves, burn a 10 g sample of flour (instead of 100 g), and the numerical value identifying their flours also represents the weight of the residual ash (which will obviously be one-tenth of the numerical value identifying the German flours).
Paradoxically, the least clear classification is the Italian one, because to know how much ash 100 g of "00" flour will produce, you need to consult the following table:
ITALIAN FLOUR CLASSIFICATION (Presidential Decree 09-02-2001, No. 187):
Type Ash (in milligrams per 100g of flour)
Soft wheat flour type 00 < 550
Soft wheat flour type 0 < 650
Soft wheat flour type 1 < 800
Soft wheat flour type 2 < 950
Whole wheat flour 1300-1700
Knowing that a "00" flour produces a maximum of 550 mg of ash, it becomes easy to identify the equivalent German or French flour:
GERMAN FLOUR CLASSIFICATION (DIN 10355 standard):
Type Ash (in milligrams per 100g of flour)
Flour 405 < 500
Flour 550 510-630
Flour 812 640-900
Flour 1050 910-1200
Flour 1600 1210-1800
Flour 1700 < 2100
FRENCH FLOUR CLASSIFICATION (Calvel, The Taste of Bread)
Type Ash (in milligrams per 100g of flour)
Flour 45 < 500
Flour 55 500-600
Flour 65 620-750
Flour 80 750-900
Flour 110 1000-1200
Flour 150 > 1400
By consulting the tables, we can recognize the main equivalences as follows:
Italian flour type '00' = German type 405 = French type 45 (T45)
Italian flour type "0" = German type 550 = French type 55 (T55)
Italian flour type "1" = German type 812 = French type 65 (T65)
Italian whole wheat flour = German type 1600 = French type 150
By applying the same criterion, we can compare not only wheat flours but also rye and spelt flours.