The Southern Flour Brand That Went From Humble Beginnings To Household Staple

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There's an iconic flour brand that's considered a staple in Southern cuisine and may be the only flour to use if you're cooking mouthwatering biscuits. Although the brand started as a small company that didn't originally have a flour mill, it blossomed into a business that developed a sizable following, known for producing special flour with an exemplary consistency for pastries and biscuits.

White Lily is a Southern brand of flour that is popular with both professional bakers and home cooks. It began as an idea by James Allen Smith, who in 1873 opened a company that traded grain and provisions in Knoxville, Tennessee. After working with business partners to open Knoxville City Mills in 1882, it later merged with Smith's original grain-trading company to become J. Allen Smith & Company. Smith tried to develop a better-quality baking flour for his customers, and after experimenting with locally grown and milled varieties without success, he gave his mill operators the task of creating a better flour. 

In 1883, White Lily flour, made with 100% soft red winter wheat, was born. The company's production facilities have since moved north, and the company has changed hands a number of times; most recently it was purchased in 2018 by Hometown Food Co. from The J.M. Smucker Co. Despite the changes, White Lily flour is still considered by many chefs to be the go-to flour for Southern-style biscuits and other specialty baked goods.

In our ranking of popular flour brands, though it's still considered a high-quality flour, White Lily placed lower because it's more of a specialty product compared to other all-purpose flours. White Lily excels at providing flour for baked goods that become soft and lightly textured, such as cakes, cookies, pancakes, and biscuits. The consistency of White Lily flour makes it less suitable for making bread or chewy baked goods, as there's a difference between flour used for fluffy cakes versus bread flour.

White Lily's texture was originally designed to please Southern bakers, who at the time had difficulty sourcing good flour. White Lily Enriched Bleached All-Purpose Flour's 9% protein is lower than conventional all-purpose flour, such as King Arthur, which contains about 11.7% protein, which is even less than its bread flour's 12.7% protein. This means the gluten in White Lily flour doesn't develop as much when it bakes, making the finished baked good softer and lighter. In addition, White Lily flour is milled to be finer in texture, which makes the end result even more delicate. 

White Lily sells more products besides all-purpose flour, including the popular White Lily Bleached Self-Rising Flour, baking mixes, cornmeal mixes, and more. White Lily products can be found at Walmart, Kroger, and other retailers. In addition, Amazon sells White Lily All-Purpose Flour in a 5-pound bag for about $20, among other White Lily varieties.