flour
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flour
A fine powder produced by grinding grains, especially wheat, and used as a basic ingredient for baking bread, cakes, and other dough products.
Für diesen Pizzateig benötigst du Mehl, Wasser, Hefe und Salz.
For this pizza dough, you need flour, water, yeast, and salt.
'Mehl' (flour) is closely related to the verb 'mahlen' (to grind), which means 'to grind something into powder.' Flour is therefore the result of grinding.
In der alten Mühle wird heute noch Getreide zu Mehl gemahlen.
In the old mill, grain is still ground into flour today.
'Mehl' (flour) is a substance noun and therefore usually uncountable. It is generally used without an article and in the singular when talking about the substance in general.
Hast du noch Mehl zu Hause? Ich möchte einen Kuchen backen.
Do you still have flour at home? I want to bake a cake.
In the context of baking and cooking, 'Mehl' (flour) is often used with verbs such as 'sieben' (to sift), 'zugeben' (to add), 'kneten' (to knead), or 'mit etwas vermischen' (to mix with something).
Bevor du den Teig machst, solltest du das Mehl sieben.
Before you make the dough, you should sift the flour.
When 'Mehl' (meal/powder) is not made from grain, this is almost always made clear by a compound word. Look out for words such as 'Knochenmehl' (bone meal), 'Fischmehl' (fish meal), or 'Gesteinsmehl' (rock flour).
Fischmehl wird oft als Tierfutter verwendet.
Fish meal is often used as animal feed.
strength / starch
'die Stärke' and 'das Mehl' can both be fine white powders in the kitchen, but they are not used in the same way. 'Mehl' is a basic ingredient for dough, for example for bread, cake, or pancakes. 'Stärke' is used more to make sauces, soups, or pudding thicker. The words can be confusing because starch often comes from potatoes or corn and looks similar to flour. For baking, you usually use 'Mehl'; for thickening a sauce, you are more likely to use 'Stärke'.
Für den Kuchen braucht Max 300 Gramm Mehl.
Max needs 300 grams of flour for the cake.
Für die Soße rührt Sofia etwas Stärke in kaltes Wasser.
For the sauce, Sofia stirs some starch into cold water.