Quality of gluten: a simple test you can perform right now
I just read at "Askville.com" about a simple test to determine the relative quality of the gluten in flours you use, and think you may want to try it. It's fun and educational.
We all know about the importance of quantity of of gluten, but quality of gluten is also very important.
Make a small stiff dough of ball using 1/4 cup of flour. Make one ball for each flour you have on hand.
Knead till it becomes quite elastic, then continue kneading between fingers under a stream of water, till the water washes out all of the starch in the ball. You now have a ball of pure gluten. By playing with this ball, stretching and folding it, you will soon see how resistant it is to tearing compared with the other balls you test. A good bread flour will enable you to pull the gluten into a very thin membrane.
RobertS