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TIL that Canadian wheat flour from Manitoba is prized in Italy, and is
preferred for Neapolitan Pizza.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manitoba_flour#:~:text=Since%20its%20in...
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|u/Cultural_Hippo - 5 hours
|
|The majority of the grain that goes into making Sapporo and Ashai beer
|comes from Alberta! Alberta is one of the largest producers of barley to
|export in the world. Then countries refine it and just sell it back to
|us at a premium!


  |u/Impossible_Angle752 - 2 hours
  |
  |Most of the world's mustard seeds come from Saskatchewan. Even the
  |fancy French stuff.


    |u/Tjaeng - 1 hour
    |
    |The ”Fancy French Stuff” in the USA (Grey Poupon which is by far the
    |largest Dijon mustard brand in the US) doesn’t touch France at all.
    |Kraft Heinz has a specific North American license and produces Grey
    |Poupon in Michigan using Canadian mustard seed.


      |u/Impossible_Angle752 - 1 hour
      |
      |80% of mustard seeds consumed in France is from Canada.   [https:/
      |/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dijon\_mustard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wi
      |ki/Dijon_mustard)  Somewhere in here is buried that over 70% of
      |production comes from Saskatchewan.
      |[https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection\_2023/ccg-cgc/A
      |92-17-2022-eng.pdf](https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collect
      |ion_2023/ccg-cgc/A92-17-2022-eng.pdf)  Hence, even actual French
      |mustard, from France, is most likely produced with seeds from
      |Saskatchewan.


        |u/Tjaeng - 1 hour
        |
        |Of course, I’m not thinking that France has any significant
        |production of mustard seed. What makes it fancy and French has
        |to do with what wine and vinegar is used and where it’s all
        |smashed together. No different from Belgian or Swiss chocolate,
        |Italian coffee, British tea, Finnish licquorice, Japanese
        |whisky…


  |u/JonLongsonLongJonson - 2 hours
  |
  |And Washington state alone produces about 30% of the worlds hops.


  |u/Niskasha - 2 hours
  |
  |holy shit. born and raised albertan here, this is cool!


|u/rayinreverse - 6 hours
|
|Don’t tell that to the people who think their gluten sensitivity from N
|America goes away when they eat “Italian wheat”.


  |u/TheLastRulerofMerv - 6 hours
  |
  |Oh yeah, this makes me laugh hardcore for that because this wheat is
  |higher in the proteins that create gluten. So really, this wheat is
  |preferred in Italy because it yields more gluten, which impacts its
  |leavening.


  |u/beesmakenoise - 6 hours
  |
  |Thank you! This claim always make me roll my eyes. Yes, plenty of
  |things are different in Europe but a lot of the flour is literally the
  |exact same.


  |u/anarrogantbastard - 1 hour
  |
  |I worked in an early Neapolitan style pizza chain in my hometown,
  |which came in around the time everyone started talking about gluten
  |sensitivity. We were trained as servers to describe our flour as
  |easier to digest, and having more protein. Someone asked if more
  |protein meant more gluten, and the trainer said that it didn't matter
  |about gluten content, people were eating at most a third of the bread
  |they would be eating at any other pizza place, so it would always be
  |easier to digest.


  |u/johnny_51N5 - 45 minutes
  |
  |Lol yeah. People are so fucking uninformed.  Gluten RARELY is the
  |Problem. Except if you have CELIAC DISEASE. Then yeah... DON'T EAT IT.
  |Otherwise it could just be fructans which can cause bloating and other
  |symptoms. You should look into a FODMAP diet. Helps 70-80% of the
  |people with IBS. That's the reason why dourdough is so much better for
  |these people. Because the slow Fermentation gets rid of a a lot of the
  |fructans. But also longer fermentation times or using more yeast has
  |the same effect.   Climate change is probably also to blame. More
  |eratic weather > more fructans and other long sugars for steuctural
  |integrity that is no bueno for our bowel. Since certain bacteria go
  |ape shit with too much.


  |u/DudebuD16 - 3 hours
  |
  |It's likely they are eating Italian wheat as Italian wheat is
  |glyphosate free.


    |u/PM_ME_SMALL__TIDDIES - 2 hours
    |
    |https://foodvoices.co.uk/2022/10/pasta-pasta-pasta-we-cant-get-
    |enough-of-it-but-what-exactly-are-we-eating   This one says Italy
    |imports from Canada and has glyphosphates.  https://non-
    |gmoreport.com/glyphosate-weedkiller-found-in-seven-famous-italian-
    |spaghetti-brands/  This one says a brand of spaghetti made with
    |local Italian wheat, not canadian wheat, also has glyphosphate.  Any
    |source on the contrary will be appreciated.


      |u/iamPendergast - 36 minutes
      |
      |They saw it on Facebook


|u/spazierer - 2 hours
|
|> Currently all flours with W > 350 are defined as manitoba whatever the
|production area and the variety of wheat used.   Canadian in name
|only...


|u/BryanTheBIsSilent - 1 hour
|
|Ok, I live in Napoli, and I have been living here for 14 years in total.
|Nobody and I mean nobody uses Mantioba flour in pizzas. Manitoba flour
|is type 0, everybody here uses Type 00 and generally from a brand called
|Caputo. And truly mean everyone, you'll see the giant bags of it proudly
|displayed in some pizzerias. I've never even heard of Manitoba flour
|until this post.


  |u/suttonsboot - 46 minutes
  |
  |We sell the caputo flour in work. 25kg bags and we also sell Manitoba
  |Oro but in 5k bags. I never knew Manitoba was Canadian. I thought it
  |was an Italian brand name 😂


  |u/aignam - 23 minutes
  |
  |I believe they use Manitoba for the focaccia col formaggio in Recco


  |u/spax570 - 3 minutes
  |
  |It's only used as a blend with other flours for high hydration doughs
  |with +80% Water content. Manitoba flour holds water much better but
  |tastes not as good. Caputo sells manitoba flour too btw.


|u/VerySluttyTurtle - 6 hours
|
|Pizza is so cheap in Italy (outside the tourist zones) and labor is
|relatively expensive in Canada, and Manitoba is in the middle of
|nowhere. I just don't see how you get wheat/flour to the nearest (very
|low volume) port, and ship it around the world, for it to then be sold
|in a country where a whole pizza can cost 1/3 to 1/4 the price of one in
|Manitoba, or a slice for a couple euros. But then again, I'm not a
|logistics manager


  |u/TheLastRulerofMerv - 6 hours
  |
  |The flour itself is high in insoluble protein which makes it very
  |gluten rich and starch poor. The reason the wheat is like that is
  |because of Manitoba's climate and general soil. So it is prized in
  |Italy for its leavening ability, which makes it perfect for doughs
  |that make Neapolitan pizza in particular.  I had no idea until my SO's
  |friend's boyfriend came here from Italy (we are in BC). We got to
  |talking, and I mentioned Manitoba in passing - how we are thankful to
  |be here in BC in the winter instead of a place like Manitoba. His eyes
  |lit up and he talked about how Manitoba wheat / flour is a big deal in
  |Italy. So I looked it up, and sure enough it is.


    |u/smn2020 - 5 hours
    |
    |when you get obsessed with making the perfect pizza you come to
    |appreciate how different flours can be. It's the same if you make
    |fries at home with the different types of potatoes.


      |u/SpiritOne - 2 hours
      |
      |started making my own pizzas, and I feel like I’ve got a great
      |handle on my sauces, but always looking for better toppings and
      |dough recipes.   Currently using a Ken forkish recipe that works
      |great for the dough. I use 00 King Arthur right now. I’ll have to
      |look for some from Manitoba.   Fun pizza. I had some leftover
      |roasted red pepper cream sauce I made for scallops, that makes an
      |incredible margherita pizza.


        |u/Jlocke98 - 1 hour
        |
        |You can always buy pure gluten powder to fortify AP flour


        |u/Il_Rich - 2 hours
        |
        |>roasted red pepper cream sauce  >margherita pizza.  I don't
        |think you know what a "Margherita" pizza is


          |u/SpiritOne - 2 hours
          |
          |I do, but it’s okay to do a spin on things.


            |u/Il_Rich - 2 hours
            |
            |A Margherita pizza is a pizza with a specific set of
            |toppings. If you alter it, it's not a Margherita anymore


              |u/Final_Priest - 1 hour
              |
              |What they probably meant, is that they proceeded as usual
              |to make Margherita, but substituting or adding an
              |ingredient. This is a useful way to describe food.   Like
              |aglio e olio, with capers.  Or carbonara, but with mince
              |meat instead of guanciale/bacon.   Yes they may be
              |bastardizing the recipe but that's the way to describe
              |what they make.


    |u/PurpleBee7240 - 5 hours
    |
    |Hawaiian pizza is delicious if it’s done right. Deep dish however,
    |is a fucking atrocity.


  |u/Pscagoyf - 6 hours
  |
  |The catch fish in Norway, gut it China, can it in Mexico and sell it
  |in Sweden.  International shipping is a trip.


    |u/Impossible_Angle752 - 2 hours
    |
    |I can't remember exactly why, but shipping in and out of China is
    |artificially cheap.   There's a company that makes door handles and
    |locks. They make the parts in the US, ship them to China for
    |assembly and then back to the US to be packaged.


      |u/Pscagoyf - 2 hours
      |
      |I think the key is that these ships are going there anyway, so
      |every container after a certain point is profit.  Edit: also
      |exploitative labour practices.


      |u/roguemenace - 1 hour
      |
      |>I can't remember exactly why, but shipping in and out of China is
      |artificially cheap.   That's only for postal shipping, not freight
      |and is due to them grabbing been classified very generously for
      |their development level.


      |u/JuventAussie - 2 hours
      |
      |When the international postal system was developed there were cost
      |sharing agreements put in place so each country covered the cost
      |of domestic shipping of letters and parcels. The world was divided
      |into categories for cost contribution and China was put in the
      |developing world so the shipping from China was low. China has
      |managed to avoid changing categories for decades.  The large
      |number of full container ships need cargo to cover their otherwise
      |empty ships so the cost is low to ship to China.


  |u/onlyAlex87 - 4 hours
  |
  |Global shipping is on a whole other level and is extremely cheap:  You
  |can grow cotton in one part of the world, ship it to another part to
  |be turned into fabric, ship somewhere else to be sewn into t-shirts,
  |shipped elsewhere to have a design printed on it, then shipped to your
  |own country and sold for $10.  Otherwise while yes Canada has rather
  |high labour costs, it is also rich enough to have very modern farming
  |using lots of advanced and expensive equipment that does most of the
  |work in place of raw labour.


  |u/radicalfrenchfrie - 2 hours
  |
  |tbf this doesn’t actually say it’s primarily used so I‘d guess it’s
  |likely that the cheaper pizzas in Italy would not be made with
  |expensive canadian flour


  |u/NotSoGreatGatsby - 1 hour
  |
  |That is because the post is wrong. It is the wheat that is shipped,
  |which is then milled in Italy. Shipping wheat at large volume is far
  |easier than shipping flour, the latter being a powder (harder to
  |handle), and white in colour so susceptible to discolouration/taints
  |etc. Wheat is far easier to ship.   This will be Canadian wheat being
  |shipped to Italy, for milling into flour in Italy. It is true that the
  |quality of the wheat is excellent for pizza making and indeed as a
  |bread flour.


  |u/MoldyFungi - 1 hour
  |
  |Read the article. It mentions that manitoba flour is just a name for a
  |type of high gluten flour that originated there and has no longer
  |bearing on geographical location.


  |u/Charles1charles2 - 45 minutes
  |
  |They literally say in the link that nowadays Manitoba flour is just
  |the name of a kind of flour with a certain gluten content, it
  |originated in Canada but it's not produced only there. There's plenty
  |of Italian producers of Manitoba flour.


  |u/KaizDaddy5 - 2 hours
  |
  |I forget the term for it but often there's some sort of trade deficit
  |where you already have logistics running goods one way, and it doesn't
  |make sense to send the transports back empty.


  |u/Odd-Hurry-2948 - 2 hours
  |
  |It might not have started as a way to make a profit it could have been
  |a situation of we have an empty ship now that we unloaded we might as
  |well ship something back just to cover fuel costs


  |u/strangelove4564 - 2 hours
  |
  |Strange to think the grain probably ships through the [Port of
  |Churchill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_of_Churchill).  Imagine
  |your pizza ingredients going right through the polar bear capital of
  |Canada.


    |u/aBeerOrTwelve - 2 hours
    |
    |Much more likely to be shipped to Thunder Bay by rail and then
    |shipped from there by ship through the Great Lakes and the St.
    |Lawrence seaway.


    |u/Likesdirt - 2 hours
    |
    |It's not really in operation any more for grain shipping. But still
    |pretty remarkable!   https://www.manitobacooperator.ca/news-
    |opinion/news/port-of-churchill-charts-new-course/


  |u/aglock - 5 hours
  |
  |It's possible that the wheat is 'highly prized' just cause it's
  |expensive. Lots of inferior food is considered fancy or high class
  |because it's expensive.


  |u/topsyturvy76 - 2 hours
  |
  |Psst .. hate to point it out but with conversion rates, a couple euros
  |is about the same as a slice in Canada


    |u/VerySluttyTurtle - 2 hours
    |
    |Yeah. I wasn't sure what to go with for a slice price. When I was
    |there a whole pizza was about 5 euros, but its been a while


      |u/topsyturvy76 - 2 hours
      |
      |Again sorry, 5 euros could also buy you a walk-in whole 1-3
      |topping pizza in Canada


        |u/VerySluttyTurtle - 1 hour
        |
        |Not the same Canada I visited. Rural Canada is EXPENSIVE  Thats
        |7.50 Canadian. Find me a whole walk-in 3 topping pizza in
        |Manitoba for $7.50


|u/Due-Garage-4812 - 4 hours
|
|Pretty sure this has been posted before and it was pointed out it's
|inaccurate, but I don't remember the exact reason.


  |u/Name11ess - 22 minutes
  |
  |According to the AVPN, here are the rules on the usage of flour to
  |make a real Neapolitan pizza : A. Flour : highly refined flour which
  |has been milled to standard “00” (doppio zero). The flour has an
  |almost talcum-powder like appearance, white, fine and is completely
  |free of bran or germ. A small amount of wheat flour type "0"
  |(Manitoba) is allowed to be added providing the percentage ranges from
  |5 to 20%. This variation is dependent on the external temperature and
  |is used to enforce the ‘00’ flour and not replace it.


|u/bigbangbilly - 6 hours
|
|Kinda ironic since Canada is the birthplace of Hawaiian pizza aka
|Pineapple on pizza


  |u/TheLastRulerofMerv - 6 hours
  |
  |The Canadian prairies just have this climate that is very ideal for
  |protein rich pulses and grain varieties. Apparently Canadian lentils
  |are so popular in India that they put tariffs on it because it was
  |eating into their lentil production. Beans too, Canadian pinto beans
  |are big down in Mexico / Latin America.   I definitely can see the
  |irony with this. The country that bastardized pizza makes wheat so
  |good that the country that invented pizza prefers it.


    |u/champagne1 - 5 hours
    |
    |We (Canadians) may have bad taste when it comes to creating certain
    |dishes,  but our farmland produces some of the best quality produce
    |you'll use to make better entres with. Poutine and HAWAIIAN pizza
    |are best compared to nickelback. You either love them or hate them


      |u/farmer_sausage - 2 hours
      |
      |Who the fuck hates poutine?


        |u/Iceman_Raikkonen - 1 hour
        |
        |Or Nanaimo bars!


      |u/emailforgot - 3 hours
      |
      |yeah those 3 months we can grow things and that knuckle deep soil
      |really makes amazing produce...


        |u/champagne1 - 3 hours
        |
        |It produces better optimism than you apparently


          |u/iShakeMyHeadAtYou - 2 hours
          |
          |Wait, you can farm optimism?? I need to get in on this!  Edit:
          |appears to  be a crypto thing. I will not be getting in on
          |this.


        |u/Impossible_Angle752 - 2 hours
        |
        |In Manitoba the clay goes down as far as most people care to
        |dig. At least where people are putting in crops.


          |u/emailforgot - 2 hours
          |
          |Wheat and barley aren't produce :)


  |u/aBeerOrTwelve - 2 hours
  |
  |I think it was in Hamilton, too. You will not find a place less like
  |Hawaii than Hamilton.


|u/EntropyBier - 2 hours
|
|A huge chunk of the grain for beer brewing comes from that area as well.


|u/greywolfau - 1 hour
|
|Do the Italians also call it Manitoba Sauce Cake?


|u/PoetOk1520 - 7 minutes
|
|This is absolutely not true lol I lived in Italy and all the reputable
|places use 00 flour from Caputo


|u/propagandavid - 2 hours
|
|I bet "Manitoba" sounds great in an Italian accent