Farinograph

In baking, a farinograph measures specific properties of flour. It was first developed and launched in 1928. The farinograph is a tool used for measuring the shear and viscosity of a mixture of flour and water. The primary units of the farinograph are Brabender Units, an arbitrary unit of measuring the viscosity of a fluid. The farinograph is a variation of the Brabender Plastograph that has been specialized for the baking industry, and it is used around the world for the objective measurement of a variety of flours.

A baker can formulate end products by using the farinograph's results to determine the following:

Method

The farinograph is drawn on a curved graph with the vertical axis labeled in Brabender Units (BU) and the horizontal axis labeled as time in minutes. The graph is generally hockey-stick shaped, with the curve being more or less acute depending on the strength of the gluten in the flour.