Home Flour Mills

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I currently bake my bread with baker's yeast and unbleached white flour, but I recently read Thom Leonard's book called The Bread Book. In it, he suggests (among other things), grinding your own flour. I'm wondering if anyone does this, and if so, what make/model of grinder is best? I've got my heart set on a stone-grinder, because it seems so rustic and natural, and apparently it preserves more nutrients by keeping the temperature of the grain lower than metal mills. But I could be convinced otherwise. Any suggestions, thoughts, experiences that might help?

-- Emily Jane (emilyjanejenkins@hotmail.com), August 18, 2001

Answers

We bought a Retsel in the early 80's and it's still running like a champ. Although it's electric, you can bolt the mill to a solid bench and grind by hand--we've never had the need or inclination to do that. It has stone burrs as you mentioned and I can get a very fine flour or coarse cereal with wheat if I wish. It does a good job on corn for meal if I am patient and put in about 1/2 c of kernels at a time and let it feed through slowly. Otherwise, the initial cracking releases so much fine meal that it won't feed through to the burrs. I've ground wheat and corn as mentioned, rye, rice, triticale and something else early on when I was experimenting. I've never done soybeans but I have done pintos, black and Great Northern beans in it. The mills are still available and advertise in Countryside or email me privately and I'll look up the phone/address for you.

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), August 18, 2001.

Emily.....we use the Country Living mill and I, being older and having so much "shoulder" work to do, was having trouble "cranking" it and getting the quality of flour I wanted. We electrified ours and I really love it. I think the stone ones are more expensive but I am not sure anymore since we have had ours for a long time. Heating the flour up has never seemed a problem to me since I only grind just what I am going to use at the moment anyway (just a thought) There have been several very comprehensive threads on this and I wish I were not such a dodo about how to use the archives so I could tell you how to get there. Maybe someone with that talent could make a link for her??

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), August 18, 2001.

I have a vita-mix and a whisper mill, the vita-mix 4000 mades great corn meal, the other flours will get very hot so I put every thing into the freezer to chill it before grinding. it grinds a less fine flour than the whisper mill, which is really easy to use and makes lots of fine flour but should not be used for soy as it is too oily, it also gets hot, but remember, the oven gets hot too and you should not pre-chill the grain because it will draw extra moisture from the air and clog the out flow. I try not to grind more than I use at one time so it is always fresh. My first grain mill was a corona, (don't think I spelled it right) anyway, it was hard to set up and adjust, hard to clean,and hard to crank, I was much disapointed with myself that I did not use it like I had wanted to. Both of the ones I have now are well worth the money.

-- Thumper (slrldr@aol.com), August 18, 2001.

We just got a Family Grain Mill, and I love it. It is German made, has steel burrs, and is very easy and quick to take apart and clean when needed. It's also relatively quiet and doesn't make a big dust mess. I can grind anything in it except popcorn and rocks, as far as I know (although I don't know why I'd do that ).

It has an infinite setting, so you can really control how coarse or fine you want your flour. On the finest setting, the flour comes out slightly warm, but not hot. I don't have to cool the grains first.

I found that several websites in the states are throwing in the hand crank free, if you buy the motor. You can can different attachments: grain mill, grain roller, meat grinder, vegie (and whatever) slicer, and somewhere I read that there is a sausage making attachment coming out, but I can't remember where I saw that.

The footprint is 5"x5", so it is relatively small too. I'm really thrilled with this. When I'm making bread, I can mill the flour just before mixing it into the dough, and the flavor really is different than when you buy flour.

Laurie

-- Laurie (pwc24@excite.com), August 18, 2001.


I also have a Country Living Grain Mill and love it. We also electified ours which made it easier to use. It's not as loud as the electric mills, and grinds just as fast. Grinding your own grain is nutritious and tastes great. You'll notice a big difference in taste when you use fresh ground flour. And you can grind all sorts of grains and beans for a variety of tastes. Enjoy. Mary

-- Mary Fraley (kmfraley@orwell.net), August 18, 2001.


I have a Marathon Uni-Mill. I have had it since the mid 70's. I can grind from pastry fine to course. From corn to soybeans. It will even split peas and lentils. It is a stone grinder and cleans easily by just running aboutg 1/2 cup of popcorn through.

We would harvest our wheat and rye, take it to be cleaned, then store in 30 gal. drums. Nothing beats bread made with home grown, home ground flour!!!

I used to use it at least 3 times a week, but with only 2 at home now, I do not use it as often.

It is electric but I have a hand crank that attaches to it incase....

I do not know if they are still made. The company that made them was the Grover Company.

-- Cordy (ckaylegian@aol.com), August 20, 2001.


A few months ago, I purchased a Marathon Uni-Mill. It's great! Very easy to use, and very sturdy. I like being able to grind my own fresh flower from organic grains right before I bake. The bread is very yummy. I also read that the mill will shell sunflower seeds for making oil, and since it can be adjusted to such a wide gap, I have no trouble believing it.

-- Laura Jensen (lauraj@seedlaw.com), August 21, 2001.

Oh yeah, I wanted to say that I bought the mill, used but in excellent condition, on eBay for, I think, around $130 including shipping.

-- Laura Jensen (lauraj@seedlaw.com), August 21, 2001.

I just checked eBay, and there's a Magic Mill, which is pretty similar to my mill. Item No. 1266679344. It's just been listed, but is now around $40. Check out the size of the stones! Very nice heat sinks to keep the grain cooler, and very sturdy. Good luck!

-- Laura Jensen (lauraj@seedlaw.com), August 21, 2001.

I still think the Diamant is the best for home milling. Mine is pedal-powered an a fit cyclist can mill 20 pounds of medium-coarse flour in a sweaty hour. I figure a pound is a mile.

Forget about nutrient loss due to heat on a hand mill, you're just not going to generate that much friction. On a commercial level, modern roller mills can run cooler than modern stone mills. Either one, set up properly and operated by someone who cares will not heat sufficiently to diminish nutritional value.

-- Thom Leonard (breadheart@earthlink.net), December 05, 2001.



I am a member of a small Non Profit Foundation: FDHC (Foundation For The Development of Haitian Children) made of volunteers and actually helping a small community on a mountain in the back country of Haiti. The priest who is responsible for the community has also opened his doors to abandoned and orphaned children. We have two years ago started the Soybeans project with them which gives them a better nutrition since they are extremely poor. On my last visit in December Father Dehoux told me that they badly need to grind their Soybeans and also the Wheat so they can make their own breads, they feed a hundred mouths a day. He told me that he had seen in a magazine an article about "The Marathon Uni-Mill and the Blakeslee Mixer" and asked me if I could find the funds to purchase it for them. I am very ignorant about machines but I have been looking eagerly for that until this morning I came upon this page in the Internet. Being myself a vegetarian and eating Soybeans everyday (bought at the supermaket) I am a strong advocate of Soybeans. All of you seem to have some kind of experience on the subject so can any of you help me to help that community. Here is our web page : www.fdhc.org I live in Silver Spring, Maryland and I do not know where to get it. Phone: 301-445-2136. They also need a "Noodles Maker", a Mountain Dough Maker. They also mentionned The "Super 3600 stainless steel Vita Mix Bread Maker" which can be used to extract the juices from the vegetables. They have so many people to feed and so little money and they are trying to acquire very sturdy machines and become self dependant. Thank you for your patience and your help. Monique Theodore Ricomoni@erols.com

-- Monique Theodore (Ricomoni@erols.com), February 18, 2002.

We've had our All-Grain Mill since the 60s and love it. It has quality stones and grinds slowly so the flour isn't overheated. It is definitely detrimental to overheat the grain before making the bread as the minerals will become unavailable.

Although the All-Grain company no longer manufactures these, we did find a used model (newer than ours) at a yard sale, but found that it ground too fast and overheated the grain. I contacted the company which was still around just for the purpose of assisting people. They said that the information was known concerning the overheating, but that people wanted faster grinding. They said that an electrician could slow the motor down.

Also, I've read that Vitamin E is no longer in the flour five days from grinding -- which is a very good reason to have your own mill.

-- HV (veggie@ourplace.com), February 19, 2002.


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