AP disaster in the Flour Aisle

C

ChowderMan

Pizza Chef
last century (really!) some stuff came up about bromides used for bleaching flour. with three small chillun's I opted to start with unbleached flours.

now, flour will "bleach" all by itselfsome - given time. bleaching agents are used to rapidly create a snow white 'pretty' flour. appearance, that's all....

I started using Ceresota Unbleached AP - been using it since the late 1970's. I weigh things. I have kabillions of recipes in grams and of more late have expended much effort in perfecting gram weight baking / cooking dishes adapted for two empty nesters.

last Christmas time our local market ran out of Ceresota and I bought some KA AP flour. heh, decent stuff, eh? well, the two flours do not correspond - pretty much every recipe was off as the KA takes less liquid than the Ceresota. biscuits ala hockey pucks . . .

guess what: Ceresota has disappeared from the market again.
Giant manager: "That was removed in our last reset."

went looking on-line - holy mealy bugs! 2 and 5 lb pkgs of Ceresota flours available priced at _one dollar plus cents_ PER OUNCE! plus shipping.

how's that saying go.... "I'm okay, you're okay" . . . ?
well, they is not okay; they is plumb nuts.

contacted Uhlmann - they market under Ceresota and Heckers.
did some shopping in all the local markets; conveyed further info on the issue to Uhlmann; long story short:

(1) they do not directly distribute/sell on-line
(2) they've lost market areas - whole chains have stopped handling their products.

so - Flour Alert: if you use Ceresota / Hecker brand flour(s) - standby to be abandoned.
 
I've been using King Arthur flour for quite some time now and not aware of local brands that may come from milling states. I wish you luck finding a source.

I used to live in Winona, MN and took a tour of Bay State Milling which was quite interesting. It's good to see they are still in business. It looks like they still only deal in bulk to bakery, pizza, and other large suppliers.

The Ceresota site has some good recipes.

https://heckersceresota.com
 
Doc -

$11.51 + $8.89 shipping for 5 pounds of flour is slightly out of my tolerance for sanity.

Uhlmann says their primary market is north NJ / NY - anybody up that way see it in stores for how much?

I suspect Uhlmann has raised their wholesale price to the point it is not competitive with other (even premium) brands.

supposedly Supervalu carries it - we have one of those not too far off.

I think I'm best off just dumping them and re-tweaking my recipes for KA.
 
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NJ - ShopRite Supermarket
Heckers 2/lb AP $2.19, 2/lb self rising $1.99, 2/lb whole wheat $2.39, 5/lb $2.99.

I always use Heckers
 
thanks Peeps! those are "normal" prices here, there and thither. the 2 lb bag usually carries a premium but $2.19 seems quite flat. 5 lbs of KA unbleached AP runs basically $5 in the local markets.

how some of these places come up with prices in the dollars per ounce range is beyond any comprehension. perhaps it's like White Lily - it's famous for biscuits and I reckon some folks will pay any amount to get their hands on some. I found out Walmart carries it here (even tho we're outside White Lily's normal distribution area) so I tried a bag. DW panned the drop and the rolled biscuits mincing very few words, so I'm not missing it (g)

Heckers - so far as I can determine - is the same flour with a different name. one of the companies bought the other of the companies thousands of years ago and both brand names have been perpetuated....

tomorrow I'm going to stop by the SuperValu and see if they still stock it.
 
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ChowderMan said:
thanks Peeps! those are "normal" prices here, there and thither. the 2 lb bag usually carries a premium but $2.19 seems quite flat. 5 lbs of KA unbleached AP runs basically $5 in the local markets.

how some of these places come up with prices in the dollars per ounce range is beyond any comprehension. perhaps it's like White Lily - it's famous for biscuits and I reckon some folks will pay any amount to get their hands on some. I found out Walmart carries it here (even tho we're outside White Lily's normal distribution area) so I tried a bag. DW panned the drop and the rolled biscuits mincing very few words, so I'm not missing it (g)

Heckers - so far as I can determine - is the same flour with a different name. one of the companies bought the other of the companies thousands of years ago and both brand names have been perpetuated....

tomorrow I'm going to stop by the SuperValu and see if they still stock it.
Click to expand...

Sort of like Hellmans and Best brand Mayos.
 
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