![Farinograph_AT_2010](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Farinograph_AT_2010.jpg)
![Farinograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Farinograph.jpg)
In
baking
Baking is a method of preparing food that uses dry heat, typically in an oven, but can also be done in hot ashes, or on hot stones. The most common baked item is bread but many other types of foods can be baked. Heat is gradually transferred " ...
, a farinograph measures specific properties of
flour
Flour is a powder made by grinding raw grains, roots, beans, nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many culture ...
. It was first developed and launched in 1928. The farinograph is a tool used for measuring the
shear
Shear may refer to:
Textile production
*Animal shearing, the collection of wool from various species
**Sheep shearing
*The removal of nap during wool cloth production
Science and technology Engineering
*Shear strength (soil), the shear strength ...
and
viscosity
The viscosity of a fluid is a measure of its resistance to deformation at a given rate. For liquids, it corresponds to the informal concept of "thickness": for example, syrup has a higher viscosity than water.
Viscosity quantifies the inte ...
of a mixture of
flour and water. The primary units of the farinograph are Brabender Units, an
arbitrary unit
In science and technology, an arbitrary unit (abbreviated arb. unit, '' see below'')
or procedure defined unit (p.d.u.)
is a relative unit of measurement to show the ratio of amount of substance, intensity, or other quantities, to a predetermined ...
of measuring the viscosity of a fluid.
A baker can formulate end products by using the farinograph's results to determine the following:
*Water absorption
*Dough viscosity, including peak water to
gluten
Gluten is a structural protein naturally found in certain cereal grains. Although "gluten" often only refers to wheat proteins, in medical literature it refers to the combination of prolamin and glutelin proteins naturally occurring in all grain ...
ratio prior to gluten breakdown
*Peak mixing time to arrive at desired water/gluten ratio
*The stability of flour under mixing
*The tolerance of a flour's gluten
Method
The farinograph is drawn on a curved graph with the vertical axis labeled in Brabender Units (BU) and the horizontal axis labeled as time in minutes. The graph is generally hockey-stick shaped, with the curve being more or less acute depending on the strength of the gluten in the flour.
![Farinograph2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Farinograph2.jpg)
The points of interest on the graph are fivefold:
#Arrival Time (Absorption) - Absorption is the point chosen by the baking industry which represents a target water to flour ratio in
bread
Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour (usually wheat) and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diet. It is one of the oldest human-made f ...
. This ratio is marked at the 500 BU line and is taken as a
rule of thumb
In English, the phrase ''rule of thumb'' refers to an approximate method for doing something, based on practical experience rather than theory. This usage of the phrase can be traced back to the 17th century and has been associated with various t ...
for desired taste, texture, and dough performance during
proofing and baking. All other measurements are based on this 500 BU standard. (For comparison, the accepted BU is 1000 or greater for
noodles
Noodles are a type of food made from unleavened dough which is either rolled flat and cut, stretched, or extruded, into long strips or strings. Noodles are a staple food in many cultures (for example, Chinese noodles, Filipino noodles, Indo ...
).
Thus on the graph above, Arrival time is the point on the graph where the top of the curve reaches the 500 BU point and indicates the rate of absorption (minutes/BU).
#Peak time - Peak time is reached at the highest point on the curve, and indicates when the dough has reached is maximum viscosity before gluten strands begin to break down.
#Mixing Tolerance Index (MTI) - MTI is found by taking the difference in BU between the peak time point (on the graph above 3 minutes, 30 seconds) and 5 minutes after peak time is reached. This is used by bakers to determine the amount that a dough will soften over a period of mixing. MTI may be expressed as a value in BU or as a percentage of BU lost over time (
).
#Departure Time - Departure time is defined as the point at which the top of the curve goes below the 500 BU line. This point is generally considered the point at which gluten is breaking down and dough has become over mixed.
#Stability - Stability is the point between arrival time and departure time and generally indicates the strength of a flour (how much gluten a flour has and how strong it is).
Applications
The Farinograph is used worldwide by bakers and food technicians in building bakery formulations. The farinograph gives bakers a good snapshot of the flour's properties and how the flour will react in different stages of baking, which helps them pick a certain flour for any given purpose. Millers use the Brabender Farinograph to access the properties of the flour, to ascertain whether changes need to be made in the mill. The miller also uses the farinograph to prepare dough for further testing for extensibility after a resting period (akin to proofing) with the Brabender Extensograph.
The industrial application of these five points is far reaching. A baker may use, for example, the arrival time as a bare minimum time when planning full product floor time for a batch of dough. A baker may also use MTI as guideline to judge the response of a dough to the addition of other ingredients. Peak time may be used as a target mix time for optimal gluten structure and resilience. Stability may be used as a method of determining desired cell structure before irreparable gluten breakdown occurs.
Notes and references
Sources
*''Starch in food: structure, function and applications''. Ann-Charlotte Eliasson. CRC Press, 2004. ,
US Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service.American Association of Cereal Chemists
External links
*
Dough Mixers
{{Bread
Baking
Food science
Measuring instruments