FAQ for alt.bread.recipes

The chemistry of bread

Editor's note: I'm just collecting Roy Basan comments here, in no particular order. They will be incorporated into a longer essay later, when Barry finishes writing it.

Freshly milled flour has more sulfhydryl bonds than disulfide bonds in the tertiary structure of the gluten proteins. When the flour is exposed to air and takes up oxygen, the lipoxidase enzyme present in the flour allows for the gradual increase of the disulfide bonds in relation to the sulfhydryl. The overall effect is an improvement in flour quality, described as the maturation of the flour.