April 15, 2014 - 1:25pm
Home Mill
So I'm in the market for a mill for my home. Don't have oodles of cash to spend on an Ostiroller or high end Komo. I have been looking at the Wonder and Nutrimill's both which use impact opposed to stone milling. How does this effect the quality of flour? I've done a little google on the subject but just get mixed reviews based on the seller or owner. I know many here home mill and have experience with a variety of these machines. Any and all input is gratefully appreciated.
Cheers
Josh
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Bought a NutriMill in December from Pleasant Hill Grain and mill various flours once a week. It is loud,(I think it is fast but this is my first mill other than using a coffee mill) cleanup is easy, learned that flour can become too warm if trying to grind several cups at a time. Bought the flour bag storage accessory, so going forward will freeze the flour because of this link :http://www.farine-mc.com/
Scroll down for the discussion on using freshly ground flour vs. 2 or 3 week old flour.
It says sorry the page you are looking for doesn't exist. - very polite.
Based on some research I think I'm gonna go with the NutriMill as its affordable and has mostly excellent reviews. it should be hefty enough to help me with the baking I'm currently doing. Plus I'll have an experience with impact milling opposed to stone which for all we know could be the wave of the commercial milling future. I kept searching for reasons stone milling was superior for bread flour but it didn't really show up. I'm curious on how warm it will make my flour, starch damage, and variation of grind in comparison to that of a stone mill. I think it will be a great tool for the home kitchen none the less so that's my plan. It is 1/2 the price of a nice hand crank (no thank you) mill. I've heard wonderful things of the Komo but the sleek wooden design really kicks the cost up on these. They are beauties though. When the time comes I'll buy an Ostiroller or a Meadows for more commercial baking. But for now at least I can grind (or explode) grain at home.
Link is dead. I did read on this recently. I can't remember any of the scientific terms but essentially within 8-12 hours of milling a chemical reaction occurs within the flour which then requires some time for the flour to oxidize strengthening the glutenous properties of the flour. This they say can take anywhere from 4 days to 21 days. Elsewhere I read that the best performing flour was aged about 1 month. I'm sure it all depends on the said grain, the said crop, it's moisture content etc.... It's the reason I stopped my Kamut experiments. i no longer have a mill (for now)so I'm aging the 20 or so lbs of ground Kamut I have before continuing with 100% experiments. Speaking of the devil I think its been exactly 4 weeks.
Cheers
Josh
From Pleasant Hill Grain website.
Breadtopia has a good video comparing various mills, including temperatures of the flour at http://www.breadtopia.com/store/wolfgang-grain-mill.html Note, he clocked the nutrimill at 102-104 degrees not 118. \
His testing is not very scientific but it is better than nothing.
It is the Part 2 that does the testing and says if you refrigerate that berries the flour comes out at room temperature, "an easy fix"
at Amazom before Christmaka. It came with a Nutrimill junior to grind the oily seeds It was $189 on sale and if you opened a Chase Amazon Visa card they would give you $30 off your first purchase and the shipping was free. So $159 is what I paid. Just love it Single pass for wheat, 300g gave me 85% extraction and for a 300 g mix of oat, buckwheat, spelt, rye, Kamut , farro and barley gave me an 89% extraction with the same sieve for some reason. I run it on the finest grind at full motor speed. I sift after each run of 300 g so that the flour doesn't get s hot for the 2nd batch plus I wanted to keep the wheat separate. Both tested 98 F after it finished.
For my one or two loaves of bread a week it is probably an overkill but it sure is fun to sift the flour all over the place After 600 g of milling 5 g went missing somewhere or my scale is off on occasion .
Only I have the Wondermill also sold by pleasant hill grains for $239.95 delivered. I love mine. Very fine and similar performance to nutra mill. For to the link referenced above for the breadtopia comparisons. I've put over 500 pounds thru mine in 20 years or so and would buy it again when mine dies. Either one will do just fine.