Modern Baking and Modern Technology

The nineteenth century was a time of great technical progress. Automated processes enabled bakers to do many tasks with machines that once required a great deal of manual labor. The most important of these technological advances was the development of roller milling. Prior to this time, flour was milled by grinding grain between two stones. The resulting flour then had to be sifted, or bolted, often numerous times, to separate the bran. The process was slow. Roller milling, described in chapter 4, is much faster and more efficient. This was a tremendous boost to the baking industry.