Not sure which subforum this goes in, but I figured I'd put it here since it is an ingredient. :)
I had some whole grain flour in my freezer which I forgot to label. It could be wheat, spelt, or rye. Any ideas how to tell which, other than using it and have the loaf possibly fail?
Thanks!
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but failing that, here is the half witted sidekick.
rye should be easy enough to check because it you make a small dough it will be ridiculously sticky in a way that just doesn't get better with kneading (if you can get that far!). I think you should be able to taste it too. It has a much stronger aftertaste than wheat.
Which leads me to suggestion 2, which is that if you have a bit of each flour around you might be able to do a taste test.
Don't know an easy way to tell spelt from wheat, because they are so similar. If you suspect it might be spelt, but aren't sure, I would suggest just adding a bit to a wheat loaf, so it doesn't knock you completely off track, and using it up like that.
I think adding water to the flour is the best idea of finding a way to figure out the flour. Like jem said rye will be sticky, wheat will make a nice dough, and spelt from what I have heard will not take as much water as wheat. Spelt also doesn't liked to be kneaded to much. I have worked with spelt but never used a lot of water or kneaded it very much.