The Composition of Gluten

Gluten is a mixture of proteins that can be classified as glutenins and gliadins. Extensibility is provided by glutenins while the gliadins contribute elasticity and cohesiveness. 

1 Dried Gluten. This material is sold as vital wheat gluten, it is produced by a scaled up version of the process for producing wet gluten for flour testing. A flour and water dough is made and then washed to remove the starch, the soluble proteins and the pentosan-based gum fraction. This latter fraction is an example of a non-starch carbohydrate. 

It appears that dried gluten produced from English non-bread making flour is just as good as gluten produced from the best quality Canadian flour. Unsurprisingly, dried gluten is normally made from the cheapest possible source. 

There is another type of gluten available and that is produced in France by air classifying wheat flour. Air classification works by separating materials in an air stream on the basis of density. This air classified gluten has not been wetted and dried and behaves more like the gluten found in flour. 

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