The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

kitchenaid grain mill

mbitty's picture
mbitty

kitchenaid grain mill

I'm using the KA mill and although it's not the finest flour ever, if I sift out some of the bran it works. Actually it works really well. My problem here is that I have no basis for comparison - would I be even happier with a komo or mockmill or whatever? Or is this an 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' situation?  

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

to the Komo. I love the Komo! Although the KA mill did the trick, it is very slow and really loud compared to the Komo. The other thing was that I was using my daughter’s KA which meant hauling it out of the closet  which was a huge pain. The Komo fits nicely on my counter (I did get my own KA mixer for Xmas and I did find it a spot for it) as it has a very small foot print. 

My suggestion for you would be to consider how much grain you mill at once. I do 12 small loaves each time I bake so the KA was just too slow for me. It you are do one or two loaves, the KA mill is just fine. Speaking of fine, the Komo flour can be finer than the KA but the KA Flour works just fine in artisan breads. 

 

subfuscpersona's picture
subfuscpersona

If you're happy with the KA mill and the flour it produces performs well in your bread recipes I see no reason to change. I used the Hobart era KitchenAid grain mill for years (on my Hobart K5SS stand mixer) to mill flour - mostly for bread.  (I was using a mix of commercial white bread flour and home milled whole grain flour in most of my breads. I would typically bake 2 loaves a week plus maybe a pan of rolls.)

After a long time using my KA mill, I did get a stand alone grain mill (on eBay). I wanted to be able to mill a finer flour without having to sift out bran and I wanted to reduce the amount of commercial white flour in my bread.

Only you can decide if your KA mill suits your present needs.  If you do ever decide to upgrade, you might look into the Mockmill KA attachment. There have been some real improvements in home grain mills over the past decade. There is a review of the Mockmill attachment at https://breadtopia.com/store/mockmill-kitchenaid-grain-mill-attachment/

 

Our Crumb's picture
Our Crumb

I hereby cast another vote of encouragement for making the KGM-to-Komo upgrade.

I was happy with the KGM, despite all the sifting and re-milling it requires to yield adequate product. All that fussing may even have produced a finer product than we now get with one fast pass through our Komo Fidibus XL.  But I’ll never go back. The old KGM does still see service for grains to which I fear subjecting the Komo — mostly roasted (or not) dent and popcorn.   Note that our KA is a 40 year old Hobart-branded model with gears and motor that the KGM does not bring to its knees, unlike more recent models with (reportedly) plastic gears.

If you’re in it for the long haul, it’s no shamefully excessive indulgence to equip yourself with a dedicated grain mill and Komo’s products are honestly engineered. 

Tom

Justanoldguy's picture
Justanoldguy

I'm using a Mockmill attachment and I like it. One of the main reasons is it's capable of delivering the flour into the mixer's bowl. In addition to milling flour for bread I also use it to crack oats for making porridge, lovely stuff and it's so much cheaper to make your own if you've got a good source of oat groats. When it comes to the need for sifting I don't. My whole wheat bread is exactly that - well sometimes there's a little whole rye in there too. The Mockmill has stone burrs so it does restrict the substances you can mill to dry, non oily grains. That's the only drawback that I know of for stone. 

mbitty's picture
mbitty

Ok, so ... Fidibus, Mockmill (100 or 200?) or Mio? Let's pretend price and appearance don't matter (though the wooden ones are obviously more attractive). Is there much of a difference? Thanks ... 

Truth Serum's picture
Truth Serum

 When you grind your own flour the taste is worth the noise. I bake about two loaves per week; With a mix of flours , but the only one I grind is the whole wheat! I use a bullet blender for buckwheat and sprouted grain

barryvabeach's picture
barryvabeach

mbitty,  if you are asking the difference between the Komo Fidibus, the Komo Mio, and the Mock mill,  my guess is they will all produce about the same.  I have the Komo classic, and the Mio and Mock Mill, as far as I know , both use the same arrangement, one fixed stone, one rotating stone, and you turn an adjustment knob to get the stones closer.  You will get slightly different results if you were using another approach - say the Lee Household Mill which has a fixed stone, and a flapper that throws the flour against the stone,  but in the end, they are just grinding the berries.  Some say the impact machines will give a different result, though the one I had didn't produce a different tasting flour, although you could not adjust the coarseness as well as on the stone machines.  Going from the KA attachment to a full size machine will give you quicker results.