How long to age freshly milled flour before use

use it right away.  They say if you don't use it in 3 days when you need to age it a month but i have never found that to be the case at all - never once  It sounds like what millers say to get you to buy their flour since they can't get it to you faster than that and it keeps folks from thinking their flour is old and stale, but that is what it is when I buy it - compared to fresh milled

happy milling and baking

Recently, I've been reading an insane amount about milling. I had been using fresh flour immediately, but wisdom, from the 18th century through to today, says the flour needs a little time.

The most liberal standard I've found says to wait at least 24 hours. At the more conservative end, I've seen 10-21 days.  They all assume room temperature conditions. And of course the ideal is to use them as soon as possible, once they've aged "properly".

Aging seems to be a tradeoff between gluten quality and oils in the flour going rancid. Both depend on oxidation. Super fresh flour won't have developed "enough" without plenty of oxygen, and yet every day it's not used, some of its oils are going bad. 

I've been home milling for almost 2 years now. But I go to the extreme with it, as I'm obsessed with 18th century French flour. So I begin by tempering (adding water to) my soft white wheat (that's mostly what the French had), letting that mellow for 12-14 hours, then grinding. I'm now giving it a rest for 3 days before I bolt out the bran and use the white flour. The jury is still out on its impact though, as I've been mixing it with rye in some experiments.

What I do know is that I've never had a problem with it behaving and baking up well, when used 100% fresh. Although I'm basically prepping pastry flour, it's almost as strong as bagged AP flour. But if this aging thing pans out, I'll add an update here.

Found the article below. sounds interesting and illuminating on the matter:

https://former.buhlergroup.com/europe/ru/573-11173.htm?title=