Topic · Science

Gluten

The protein network formed when wheat flour is hydrated and worked, giving dough its extensibility and gas-holding strength.

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Appears in Follow grain to bread · Previous: Starch · Next: Baker's percentage

Gluten is not an ingredient you add. It forms from proteins already in Wheat flour once Water and work are present.

Mixing and folds are ways of organizing that network. Too little work and the dough cannot hold gas; too much and it tears. Calvel treats flour behavior — including gluten — as something the baker learns by dough feel as well as by specification 1.

See Dough development for the craft application.

Ingredient

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Sources & further exploration

Cited in this article

  • The Taste of Bread — Raymond Calvel. Aspen Publishers. 2001. ISBN 978-0-8342-1646-4 — English edition of Calvel's technical account of French bread. The link is a WorldCat catalog record for the print edition; it is not a public full-text copy.

Updated 2026-08-25. gg:topic:gluten · CC BY 4.0

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Gourmet Gastronomer. "Gluten." Updated 2026-08-25. https://gourmetgastronomer.com/science/gluten/ gg:topic:gluten.

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Gourmet Gastronomer. "Gluten." Gourmet Gastronomer. Updated August 25, 2026. https://gourmetgastronomer.com/science/gluten/.

APA

Gourmet Gastronomer. (2026, August 25). Gluten. https://gourmetgastronomer.com/science/gluten/

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