Is it true that stone ground flour is less harmful than cylinder ground flour? Is 00 flour refined? Enough with these lies, let's clarify!
For years now we have been hearing about stone-ground flour as if it were a healthy return to the past and the best flour for pizza. Those who produce it as a sales strategy have demonized 00 flour even going so far as to state completely that 00 is poison.
Are things really like this?
I must say that at the beginning when this trend of stone-ground flour came out (because it is only fashionable now) I too believed the fairy tale that this was the healthy flour that was even good for health and that 00 flours were harmful because they are too “refined”. But I was an ignoramus, first because I had believed these stories without having documented myself and then because I too believed in the flour refining story.
Considering that in the world of pizza there is and has always been a lot of ignorance among pizza makers, it was easy to pass on false news artfully packaged to sell a flour accordingly. Who first invented stone-ground flour (of which there is only a small percentage in 25 kg bags) knew that in order to be able to sell a product that costs 10 times more per kg it would not have been easy without inventing a striking reason, therefore they had to propose it with a strong motivation otherwise no pizza maker would have preferred to pay 2,5 euros or more per kg for flour against 70 cents per kilo.
So here we propose stone-ground flour accompanied by the tale of the return to the past as a healthy choice, proposed as the only flour rich in vitamins, demonizing the 00 flour that everyone used, passing on the message that 00 flour is actually synthetic and even carcinogenic...which is absolutely false!
Do you know why this message was able to pass?
Because they have faced an audience of pizza makers where the majority do not really know how things are and aware that they do not know, if they hear certain things said by a technician of a mill they consider an expert or by a master pizza maker (who in reality serves the economic interests of that Molino), so the pizza makers who have not studied, unable to counter theories they do not know, accept new philosophies, even false ones, at face value.
By accepting these new philosophies without verifying them only because they have heard them said by a mill technician or a self-styled master, they are convinced that the 00 flour they have used up to that moment is refined and bad for health, while the good, healthy and only the stone-ground one is right and once they are convinced of this they are willing to spend 10 times more to make pizzas with that flour, unknowingly playing into that Molino's game.
The millstone of a mill turns at 300 rpm while the metal cylinder of modern mills turns at 400 rpm. Even if the iron or titanium cylinder rotates faster with the same friction, it heats the flour much less because a modern plant of a mill is equipped with a cooling system that does not exist in the stone grinder, moreover it must be said that the stone grinder exerts greater friction than the cylinder.
The overheating of the flour given by the stone mill creates two problems:
1. the loss of vitamins and other nutrients because they are dispersed by heat;
2. Furthermore, with heat, wheat germ, which is a fat, tends to accelerate its rancidity process.
And this is not a theory to try to believe: go to a stone mill and touch the flour that comes out of the millstone and feel its temperature then do the same in an industrial mill and see for yourself which of the two flours comes out more from the millstone . The first stone ground one will be warm and the second cold.
As a result, which of the two flours has undergone a deterioration?
The stone ground one!
It should also be added that the stone millstones then, unlike the cylinders, with wear they release small stone slags inside the flour which mix with the flour which, even when sieving it, remain and are certainly not healthy in the long run. for the kidneys.
Do you want to risk eating stone dust together with the flour? So now explain to me: what would be the added value of stone-ground flour?
I don't see any, in case I see some disadvantages that's why I say that stone-ground flours are just an excuse to sell flour at a high price. If then whoever produces it says that these are flours richer in fiber and vitamins, you can very well use a type 1 or a type 2 ground in cylinders which in my opinion are much better.
I wrote this article because I recently saw a video of a self-proclaimed master who presents himself as an expert in gourmet pizza, saying that he is also a technician in a mill that produces stone-ground flour, as it happens he does courses offering only this type of flour. Everything is ok if it weren't for the nonsense he says during his courses against 00 flours to convince the pizza makers who come to him to buy these flours that he represents.
I don't know if this kind of master is convinced of what he says or if he does it just to serve the interests of this mill, but to state in public that 00 flours are poisonous, synthetic and refined as well as a demonstration of ignorance is very serious, especially for those who poses as an experienced grand master as he does. I don't know if the Molino it represents is aware of what this master says, I think so, I think this Molino is comfortable having a person who says certain things towards pizza chefs who, out of ignorance, are unable to counter what he says and which is why they then buy these flours.
A master flour expert (as he says he is) should know that 00 flour is not refined but is "sifted" and technically it should be defined as "sifted", the term refined referring to a 00 should never be used. 00, through an absolutely natural separation process is completely deprived of parts such as: integuments, fibers, germ, etc... but it is not synthetic, nor poisonous.
This gradual process divides the flour into 5 types: 00, 0, 1, 2 and Integral.
This measurement is obtained through the "Sifting Rate" which is the effective flour yield of the ground wheat.
This is the sifting rate by type of flour: 100 kg of flour remain for 50 for 00 kg of wheat, 100 kg of flour remain for 72 for 0 kg of wheat, 100 kg of flour remain for 80 kg of wheat for type 1, for 100 kg of wheat, 85 kg of flour remain for type 2, no sifting for the wholemeal of which 100% of the ground grain remains.
The word "refined" is not a correct term as refining is an exclusively chemical process and it is not the case of flour, the refining process is used in petrol and olive pomace oil compared to extra virgin oil, in these cases the use of external chemical agents for the separation of parts from a substance is permitted.
The correct word to use for flour is: sifted or sifted.
The use of words is important, using the word "refined" to indicate a 00 flour as well as being incorrect means trying to make it clear that this flour has been treated with solvents and therefore that it has been produced using a chemical process that makes think of something unnatural and therefore harmful to health, but this is a total lie. Dear pizza friends, not knowing is not a crime but not knowing doesn't have to mean believing anything you are told.
Always try to understand who you are dealing with and in what capacity that person speaks, if a person has the eighth grade and has always been a pizza chef in your opinion, from one day to the next he can become a chemical technician and explain milling processes to you that not even he knows bottom?
When you hear about certain defamatory theories, don't take them at face value without checking especially if another pizza maker like you is giving it to you who pretends to be a technician without ever having really studied chemical processes even if he pretends to be an expert in flour. Inquire through serious scientific books that you can find in bookstores, such as those on milling techniques and go inside a mill to see for yourself if what they tell you is true, but don't visit just one mill, listen to more than one bell to compare the information they give you.
Often behind certain self-styled master pizza chefs who organize courses sponsored by a mill (such as the one I referred to which grinds with stone) there is only the intention of selling that type of flour by passing it off as healthy flour, discrediting all the others. Also be careful what you watch on YouTube because there is everything including the nonsense of those who call 00 flour "refined" and poisonous. For example, I prefer type 1 and type 2 flours but this does not mean that 00 flours are poisonous or harmful to health, be wary of those who say this even for a simple reason: if 00 flours were harmful to health why NAS do not withdraw them from the market?
I am not a technician or a flour expert, to write this article I have done nothing but read up on disinterested sources, like I did it you can do it too, so don't be fooled!