Doughs of wheat flour, salt and water have been mixed to various levels of work input and water content. Rheological tests have shown that above a particular water content the dough system is unaffected by further addition of water. I t is proposed that the water in dough is held with various degrees of strength and that the distribution of water is dependent upon the mechanical work input. IntroductionFor centuries bakers have appreciated that the level of water required to produce a dough with a consistency suitable for bread making varied from flour to flour. However, it is unlikely that the early bakers precisely recognized the connection which exists between this level of water and the baking quality of the flour. In 1821, Accum recognized that a flour was made into a dough 'with the requisite quantity of water which varies according to the quality of the flour' (Accum, 1821). The first simple mechanical apparatus for testing washed-out gluten or kneaded dough to indicate the baking strength of a flour was not described until 1886 (Jago, 1886). Brabender (1965) has given a lucid review of the evolution of such types of apparatus to the present time.The dough testing instruments in common use today require either doughs of

Doughs of wheat flour, salt and water have been mixed at various rates and to various levels of mechanical work input. .Rheological tests have confirmed that there exists a definite level of work input which gives maximum dough development for any one flour; the results suggest, moreover, the existence of an optimum rate of work input for producing the most stable dough and the best bread.Baking tests have been used to relate the rheological parameters of the doughs with their baking performance.

It is suggested that the terms 'strong' and 'weak' derived from bakery experience may not always be directly applicable to the quality of gluten present in such fours, and may be more related to gluten quantity than hitherto believed. It is clearly demonstrated in this work that the quality of glutens derived from 'strong' and 'weak' flours may be similar, although the glutens may be present in dissimilar quantity. There are, of course, certain flours which have poor glutens but until these are detected by precise rheological measurements, it is wrong to assume that the empirical rule 'weak flour means poor gluten quality' holds true.