January 22, 2011 - 7:56pm
King Arthur Sir Galahad
I've never baked with anything other than KA flours: APF, Unbleached BF, White Whole Wheat and 100% Whole Wheat. I've noticed KA Sir Galahad Flour is mentioned a lot in this forum. What type of advantage does this style of flour have over the typical ones listed above which are sold in the grocery store? Is it used for all types of breads in place of Unbleached Bread Flour?
Also, any idea where I can pick up 50# bags of flour in the Boston, MA area?
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Sir Galahad is the same flour as KAF AP. Only advantage is that it's sold in 50# bags.
You can find out the name of the distributor in your area by visiting the KAF site, professional section. Then give that distributor a call to see if it will sell to you.
Hope it works out for you.
Pretty much nailed it with what Lindy said. The only reason I buy Galahad is because I work as a baker and it cost me just over $17 for a 50# bag of it. It's very cost effective for me, and it works great too! : D
Their Sir Galahad flour is simply their AP flour sold in bulk. Their high-gluten flour, or “bread flour” is called Sir Lancelot. Even the bakery supply shop where I buy a lot of supplies didn’t know the various labels. I had to contact KA to get the straight dope. Who knew buying some dumb flour could get so complicated!? :)
4 years later...
Sir Lancelot is not the same as their bread flour. Their bread flour(blue package) is Special Patent(bulk label) and Sir Lancelot has an even higher gluten content.
King Arthur Flour = KAF
All tolerances are +/- 0.2%
All of KAF's "professional" flours
I just bought a 50# bag of K.A. Special Patent. The place where I got it, a restaurant supplier, insisted that Special Patent is K.A.'s A.P. flour. Didn't seem to matter that I tried to explain otherwise. They kept insisting. The invoice even says it's A.P. Between what I've read here on F.L. and what I've read in direct emails from K.A., there's no way the Special is A.P. I don't know why the supplier insisted on it though.
A side note: I buy my commercial ADY from these people too. A 2# package for $9.00. Compare that with the cost of those wee little things on the shelf at the grocery store.
I contacted the King Arthur Flour Baking Company customer service and they explained to me that their all purpose flour is a blend of Hard Red Spring and Hard Red Winter flour at a ratio that they cannot reveal due to proprietary reasons. Whereas, Sir Galahad is 100% Hard Red Winter Wheat. That being the case, the two flours will perform differently even though the protein content is the same. Sir Galahad is the go-to flour for most of the French Style and levain breads at their bakery.
Only ten years on, but since I used threads on this site that are far older as reference material:
JN Kidds in Weymouth (a regional food distrubitor) does a little retail on the side. What's more interesting to me, though, is that they break down 50lb bags of some KA flours into 5lb bags. (It's basic but functional packaging and includes dates and lot numbers, basically a sturdy ziploc with a sticker.) Pricing as I write this is only $2.79 for 5lb of Sir Lancelot and $3.49 for 5lb of Galahad, which stinks compared to 50lb bags but is great compared to $9 for 3lb in KA retail packaging for the high gluten. The retail operation is at specialtyfoodsource.com. Don't expect a slick ecommerce operation (it's a *very* basic site), but they're for real. (I think the retail stuff is a small sideline taken care of by like one guy there.)
They also do mail-order, so this might be of general interest--my usual assumption is that paying for retail shipping of flour is usually a bad deal, but if you're far enough from a distributor it might be the only thing going.
(I know, my first post, but no, I didn't sign up on TFL just to shill for them, but this is the first thread I've ever read here where the questions I had weren't answered already by people who know far, far more than I do!)