What does boulting mean?
Boulting is the traditional process of sifting ground grain — typically wheat flour — through a woven sieve or fine cloth known as a boulting cloth, in order to separate the coarse bran and germ from the finer white flour. The practice was central to milling long before the advent of modern roller-milling machinery, and the degree of boulting determined both the colour and the quality of the finished flour: heavily boulted flour was prized for its whiteness, while coarser grades retained more of the whole grain. The word derives from the verb 'bolt' (also spelled 'boult'), meaning to sift, which entered English from Old French. Today 'boulting' survives chiefly as a technical or historical term, encountered in accounts of traditional baking, heritage milling, and food history rather than in everyday speech.
nounThe process of sifting flour or meal through a fine sieve or cloth to remove bran and produce finer, whiter flour.
- The act of passing flour or meal through a sieve or boulting cloth to refine it.
"The miller took great pride in his boulting, producing flour of remarkable fineness."
"Traditional boulting removed the coarse bran and left only the white endosperm flour."
"Historical records describe the boulting of wheat as a skilled trade in medieval milling towns."
Before modern roller mills, the whiteness of your bread depended entirely on boulting — sifting flour through progressively finer woven cloths to leave the bran behind.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of boulting
Boulting comes from the verb 'bolt', meaning to sift flour, which was borrowed into Middle English from Old French 'bulter' or 'buleter'. The term has been part of English milling vocabulary since the medieval period, when boulting cloths of graded fineness were essential tools of the trade. Its sense is unrelated to the more common verb 'bolt' meaning to run off or fasten, despite the identical modern spelling.
Related word forms
How boulting is actually used
An archaic or technical term now found mainly in historical discussions of milling and baking; the spelling 'bolting' is also used in the same sense.
Easily confused with boulting
While 'boulting' refers specifically to sifting flour, 'bolting' more commonly means running away suddenly, securing with a bolt, or (of plants) prematurely producing flowers and seed.