Grains have been ground to make flour since the Roman times – from 6000BC onwards. Grains were toasted to remove the chaff from the wheat and then smashed between two stones. The Romans are believed to have been the first to use waterpower for milling flour, about 100 B.C. In the middle of the 16th century, the first European settlers had arrived in New France, bringing with them their flour milling technology.
In the late 18th century, Oliver Evans invented the first automated flour mill in the United States that did the work of seven men. It used millstones, had an enormous amount of levers and pulleys, and was very noisy. Evans’ mills were water powered, so they were situated along rivers.
He also introduced screw conveyors to move flour and wheat horizontally and bucket elevators to lift grain and its milled products called grist. He assembled these machines, together with sifters or bolters, in the first continuous system in which wheat was milled into flour as a single uninterrupted operation.
The following years saw a huge jump in technology, as new roller mills were constantly developed and improved. After the Revolution and until about 1830, Baltimore was the leading flour trade center in America. Its resources were abundant waterpower on the fall line, boat access to wheat lands in both the Chesapeake Coastal Plain and the Virginia Piedmont.
In 1875, the Americans combined the European roller mill, Oliver Evan’s automated mill, and the recent invention of the purifier to create an outstanding new version of the roller mill. The process of the roller mill system is to clean the grain of straw, dust, stones, and any other debris.
The use of harder wheat, initially imported from Canada in the middle of the 19th century, as well as the mechanization of milling, encouraged the widespread adaptation of a method called “New Process.” First used in Hungary, the miller using the “New Process” set his mill stones farther apart to crack rather than crush the wheat.
History of flour milling in United States
Food History is a resource for anybody interested in food history. Articles exploring various issues of food history will be featured regularly. Learning food history means that cultural study which involves multidisciplinary approaches from economics, sociology and demography, and even literature.
Monday, May 15, 2023
THE MOST POPULAR POSTS
-
Pancakes are ancient food. The word pancakes appears in print as early as 1430. Pancakes may have been around since Neolithic humans domest...
-
History of Appetizers and Hors d’oeuvre Appetizers and hors of d’oeuvre the latter literally meaning “outside of the work”- assume a wide v...
-
5000 B.C. Wheat flour, believed to originate in the Middle East, serves as the basis of the first “noodles.” Chinese ate pasta as early as 5...
-
Falafel is an ancient dish that has been popular in Egypt and now the rest of the Middle East. The history of falafel goes back to the days ...
-
Maggi is owned by Nestlé: seasonings are their main products. Maggi really grew on its dehydrated soups-an instant food at the start of the ...
-
The advent of agriculture changed the lives of the people. The Nomads started to settle, built villages and kept cattle. But even in the adv...
-
History of Milk The Holstein breed outnumbers all others used in the United States for the production of milk. Jersey and Guernsey breeds...
-
Food History The Cro-Magnon were highly skilled and inventive hunters, who varied their techniques according the season and prey. Probably t...