April 1, 2010 - 10:54am
Which grain mill?
Hi,
I would like to mill my own wholegrain flour at home but do not know which grain mill works best. Is it better to buy a separate mill - a wooden one from Komo or something like Nutrimill. Or is the grain mill attachement to KitchenAid or Bosch mixer or Champion juicer doing the same job?
It would be great if it would grind also some legume flours, would not be too noisy and would not destroy the nutritional value by overheating.
Any advice and recommandation are welcome!
zdenka
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I also have a Nutrimill and I too love it. I grind small batches (about 4 cups of berries) and empty the flour into a bag then grind again. This gives the mill time to cool down between batches and your flour will stay cool.
I usually grind about 6 pounds of flour and it goes straight into the freezer to keep it fresh.
You can't get cracked wheat or really course meal with a Nutrimill but a small hand crank mill is fairly cheap if you want cracked wheat or very course meal.
Your Nutrimill will grind popcorn where many other mills won't. Popcorn makes really good cornbread, it has a wonderfully fresh taste compared to store meal.
You must be very careful where you purchase your wheat berries with with this type of mill though. One stone mixed in with the wheat berries will ruin your mill and it is not warrantied against that type of damage.
Honeyvillegains.com carries triple cleaned wheat berries and they ship your entire order for $4.49. They are having a 15% off your entire order right now until April 6th. You just order online as usual and enter the coupon code NOFOOL during checkout. This sale came just in time for me I'm down to the bottom of may last bucket of berries.
Is open, gets flour all over the kitchen, can only do a few cups at a time before getting too hot and will burn out my motor?? Darn it! I have a gift certificate at a Kitchen store that doesn't sell Nutrimill, they only sell the Kitchen Aid grain mill attachement and I'm wanting a grain mill in the worst way.
I guess I'm going to have to plunk down the cash someday in the near future and buy the Nutrimill. I'll pay for it in about a year of shipping fees with buying my flour out of state anyway. Plus, just found a Mormon store nearby that sells bulk grains for cheap.
If anyone has anything kind to say about the kitchen aid mill, please let me know.
Hello!
I've used my Kitchen Aid grain mill for over 20 years. I did baby both it and my mixer: I only ground about 2 1/2 cups of grain at a time, and I ran it through twice. The first time through I just cracked it (about 5-6 counter-clockwise clicks) and then I ran it through again for the finest flour I could get (one click). The mixer would be warm, and I would let it cool for awhile until I made bread or anything else with it. It also cracked corn for cornmeal, rice for cereal, etc. I did this for our family of six for years and years. The mixer needed repairs occasionally. It still works, but now my daughter has it and I have a new one : )
I bought a Nutrimill about 3 years ago so I could grind more flour at a time, keeping the Kitchen Aid for coarser grinds. The Nutrimill has been out for repair twice, and now Kitchen Resources, bless their hearts, are now sending me a new one, free of charge. It started spitting out chunks of grain. Also they instructed that wheat should not be ground at the finest setting it offers. I'll see what that looks like when the new one comes. But in my old one, that setting gave me coarser flour than my Kitchen Aid! Anyone have a different experience?
Another thing with the Nutrimill. I noticed the flour absorbed water differently than the flour with the Nutrimill. Starch damage? Nutrimill flour would absorb water quickly and then the dough would be slack later. My experience with whole wheat flour was usually the opposite -- you would mix the dough wetter at first, because as it absorbed water it would stiffen up later.
Happy Baking!
Mary Clare in MO
Thank you Mary Clare for sharing your experience. I find your story very helpful!
zdenka
When reading other dicussions abou home grain milling I have found that Nutrimill and similar products are "micronizers" as opposed to stone milling...
Could anybody explain what this term means? How it works?
Thanks!
zdenka
Micronizer mills are also called impact mills. See Walton Feed for a general discussion of mill types. Pleasant Hill Grain also has good info.
use the whisper mill as well. only for wheat but does a good job.