I know there are grains other than wheat contained in all-purpose flour. But what are the percentages of each grain?

-- Dusty C., Sams Valley

You might be confusing all-purpose flour with bread flour.

To improve yeast activity, bread flour contains a small amount of malted barley flour, along with vitamin C or potassium bromate to increase the gluten's elasticity and gas retention in the dough. Bread flour is 99.8 percent unbleached, hard-wheat flour, according to the online cooks' index, epicurious.com.

All-purpose flour is made from a blend of high-gluten hard wheat and low-gluten soft wheat. Fine-textured, it contains neither wheat germ (the sprouting part) nor bran (the outer coating). U.S. law requires that all flours not containing wheat germ must have niacin, riboflavin, thiamin and iron added.

If you're looking for flour from other grains, it would be clearly labeled on the package, said Rebecca Wood, Mail Tribune food columnist.

For example, flour milled from spelt and kamut — two underused relatives of modern wheat — can often be found in natural food stores, Wood said.

Send questions to "Since You Asked," Mail Tribune Newsroom, P.O. Box 1108, Medford, OR 97501; by fax to 541-776-4376; or by e-mail to youasked@mailtribune.com.