 Historically, brown meal was what remained after about 90% of the coarse, outer bran and 74% of pure endosperm or fine flour was removed from the whole grain.Using slightly different extraction numbers, brown meal, representing 20% of the whole grain, was itself composed of about 15% fine bran and 85% white flour.In 1848 it was asserted grain millers knew only of bran and endosperm, but by 1912 it was more widely known that brown meal included the germ.