Flour

   Recipes for bread, cake, and cookies all call for flour. In the United States, if the recipe says simply "flour," it is sure to mean flour from wheat seeds. The seeds, or grains, are ground between rollers. The ground-up grain is then sifted to separate the fine powdery part from the coarser part. The fine powdery part comes mostly from the food stored up inside the seed for the baby plant. The coarser part comes mostly from the outside seed coat. Fine white flour has been rolled and sifted several times. Whole-wheat flour and graham flour are wheat flours that contain almost the whole grain. They have not been rolled and sifted as many times. There are many other kinds of flour. Most of them are made from seeds, just as wheat flour is. Among those from seeds are rye, buckwheat, and rice flours, and corn-meal. But not all flour is made from seeds. Flour is also made from potatoes and from manioc roots.