GLUTEN-FREE PASTA

Glenn’s Floury Corn makes great gluten-free pasta. We’ve tried it in various shapes and sizes, from macaroni to fettuccini, spaghetti, ravioli and even ramen!

We even asked food scientists at Monterrey Tec in Mexico to make pasta in their food lab, and we received their nod of approval. It works.

The Grind

In our own lab, we wanted to compare Glenn’s Floury Corn to normal grain corn in pasta making. We milled 350g of both corn types at the same mill setting, and sifted it through the same fine sieve. We found quickly that we needed to mill more of the grain corn in order to acquire enough fine grits for the recipe, since more of it fractioned into larger particles. We achieved a higher yield of fine grits, which are ideal for pasta-making, with the Glenn’s Floury Corn.

We prepared the same recipe for both corn types:
1.5 cups fine sifted corn flour
1 tsp xanthan gum
2/3 cup of water

We found several differences between the two products in both the process of making the noodles and in the characteristics of the noodles. The pasta dough made from Glenn’s Floury Corn absorbed water more readily, and achieved a workable texture that could be rolled with just a light dusting of additional corn flour. When rolled through a pasta roller at the same setting, it achieved a smoother and more consistent product. The grain corn dough was tacky and needed more corn flour to reach the right consistency to roll. In addition, the dough and noodles made with Glenn’s Floury Corn had a brighter yellow color.

When cut into fettuccini noodles, there was more cracking and breakage of the grain corn batch. When boiled, the noodles made from Glenn’s Floury Corn seemed to be more elastic than the grain corn noodles. They also swelled by about 15% more during the same boiling process. Overall, they had a more delicate mouthfeel and a brighter color.

Fettuccini noodles made from fine grits of Glenn’s Floury Corn

Fettuccini noodles made from fine grits of normal grain corn

We also had success in making ramen: