Flour

Flour is a finely milled powder from cereal grains, most commonly wheat, with a pale cream color. It has a neutral taste and soft, silky feel, absorbing liquids to form doughs, batters, and thickened sauces. Cooks use it for baking breads and pastries, making pasta and noodles, coating foods for frying, and building roux for soups and gravies. Sold as all-purpose, bread, cake, and other types, in bleached or unbleached forms.\n\nWheat flour traces to early stone milling in the Fertile Crescent and spread across Europe, Asia, and North Africa as a staple. Industrial roller mills in the 19th century standardized texture and extraction, accelerating global trade. Today it underpins countless cuisines from European boulangerie to East and South Asian noodles and flatbreads.