Alton Brown's Favorite Flour Comes From This Iconic Company

As someone who carries miniature vats of salt and nutmeg on his keys, it's probably safe to say that Alton Brown can be picky when it comes to ingredients. He buys almost all of his spices from The Spice House, collaborates with Dancing Goats Coffee to make his own blend, and will only buy jarred mayonnaise if it's from Duke's. As for flour? That has to be from King Arthur Baking Company.

King Arthur flour has been a favorite of bakers for generations. In fact, its roots trace back all the way to 1790, when Henry Wood set up the very first flour company in the U.S. at Boston's Long Wharf. Despite its success, King Arthur, which was given its current name in the 1890s, largely remained a New England company throughout its early years. In 1984, it moved its headquarters to Vermont, where Brown attended culinary school.

He started using King Arthur flour as a student, and it continues to be one of his favorite store-bought ingredients today. "Back in the '90s, when I was in culinary school up in Vermont, King Arthur flour was a local company known to few outside of New England. Today, King Arthur Baking is THE source for ingredients and baker supplies," he says on his website.

King Arthur is known for its high quality ingredients and consistent protein levels, making it a favorite of home bakers, professional chefs, and famous cooks like Brown and Martha Stewart. It became particularly popular during the COVID-19 pandemic, when everyone was obsessing over banana bread recipes, but it's been a trusted product for far longer than that — and for good reason.

All of the company's flour is milled from American wheat to meet extremely strict specifications. Variables like ash content and moisture levels are heavily monitored, and the products go through rigorous testing before they hit shelves. People love how reliable the flour is because of this, which is particularly great for bakers working on high-quantity productions.

But you can also purchase small bags of King Arthur in most grocery stores, and the company posts recipes, guides, and video lessons online for home bakers. There's even a special hotline people can call when they run into baking issues. Brown calls the King Arthur website a "treasure trove" with "solid" recipes, and he also gives a shout out to the company's customer service on his website, calling it "fast and friendly". If you don't already have a favorite bread flour or all purpose flour, King Arthur is definitely one to try, especially if you're still on the banana bread train.