GOLDEN TEMPLE Durum Atta Flour info
Today I called the distributer of my Golden Temple Durum Atta Flour who is J.M.Smucker Co. in Ohio where I live to ask how I can know how old my flour is. I purchased it at a Greek store near Cleveland. He told me the shelf life of this flour is 15 months and that I can know the year when the flour was milled by looking at the stamped numbers on the front of the bag. The numbers on my bag are 9 267 548 15:18 230. The first number is the last digit of the year it was milled, in my case 2009. He was able to learn that my flour was milled in September of '09 but I don't know how he figured that, maybe from the bar code number that I gave him along with the stamped number. So my flour is good for another 3 months. I'm keeping it in the freezer.
So look for the first stamped number, I would only buy it if the number is 0 for 2010 or now that it's the end of 2010 I think I'll wait till I see 1 for 2011. Maybe I'll go down to Smuckers and see if I can buy it there fresher than a year old. I like using it in a lot of my breads mixed with other flours, gives good flavor.
By the way, it's marked DURUM WHEAT FLOUR & WHEAT BRAN, weather the bran is durum or not I don't know. It is also marked PRODUCT OF CANADA.
Hope this helps anyone shopping for durum to know when it was milled.
weavershouse
The set of numbers after the 9 represents the Julian Date. Basically the 267 represents the 267th day of the year, if I'm not mistaken.
You can look up the Julian calendar online for any particular year to find the Julian date.
The Julian date-code is used a lot in the food industry. It typically indicates the day the item is produced/packaged(again, if I'm not mistaken).
Julian Day calendars:
http://modis-250m.nascom.nasa.gov/browse/calendar.html
I checked a bag at alocal store, it was about 5 months old.
Hi weavershouse, the bag of Bob's Red Mill No. 1 Durum Wheat Semolina Flour that I bought last week has a sell by date of 06/16/2012, and says best kept refrigerated or frozen. This is what I use in recipes that call for durum flour, but I seem to recall a TFL member recently stating that BRM didn't make one - so am I using the wrong flour? A.
That is so interesting and the 267th day is tomorrow. The Smucker man said something about it being almost exactly a year. Good to know when I go to buy my next bag.
Thank you for this.
weavershouse
Bob's Red Mill Semolina Flour is a durum flour and can be used for pasta or bread. It's enriched durum flour ground fine. The durum atta flour from Golden Temple has bran added to it. Both have 2g Dietary Fiber.
I've used BRM Semolina Flour, regular medium coarse semolina and Golden Temple Durum Atta for bread and they all do well. The Golden Temple is about $4.00 cheaper per 20lbs. I wonder how BRM can have such a long shelf life. The GT bran maybe?
Anyway, your BRM Semolina is fine for baking bread. Good to hear from you :o)
weavershouse
I tried making Italian semolina bread with the GT durum flour and it didnt come out right. Has anyone used it to make semolina bread?
Salma
hi- i tried it once as a sub for durum flour but mine didn't turn out either. I believe the KA durum is ground finer.
Margie
Durum or not - this is a whole wheat flour. You can not use it in a recipe calling for a patent flour and expect it to turn out right.
Here is a link to the Golden Temple flour products:
http://goldentemplefood.com/products/
For baking, my favorite is the No. 1 Fine Durum Atta flour. I find it in 20 lb, bags at an Indo-Pak grocery store near home. It is basically a fancy durum flour with some bran added, but is quite inexpensive compared to buying a straight fancy durum. I add a little (20%) to many of my white flour breads. It gives the dough more extensibility and makes it behave more like a European flour. It's also great as is for a 100% durum bread, such as Pane di Altamura. In addition, it's great to make fresh pasta with and as a final bench flour for very wet doughs.