September 21, 2011 - 11:17am
KOMO Mill and Milling Question
This summer I purchased a KOMO mill and love it.
I am slowly getting used to how to work with it and am wondering how others who have this mill grind their grains - ie on which '•' (setting) people use to get different results.
My first mill always just ground very finely. I find myself doing the same here or using the coarser setting when I want cracked grains. I am thinking there has to be a middle ground but when I grind at the 4th '•' I find the dough has a grainy feel to it - like it has sand in it - family doesn't seem to notice a difference but I would like to know from others how you decide on your grinding choices...
Thanks,
Janet
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Hi Janet,
I am certainly no expert on milling, but I have a Komo Fidibus Medium model, the only milling device I have owned. I've had it several months so far. For me, I've mostly used either the most-finest level -- all the way to the "Fein" side, or all the way (or father) on the "Grob". For the most-fine level, I've used it for whole wheat, rye, buckwheat, spelt, and corn (not popcorn but dried whole yellow corn). It makes a very fine flour, except the corn can still have decently sized chunks of outer shell (but I don't mill corn very often...).
When I have tried to make something resembling Rye Chops or Rye Meal, I set the hopper all the way or farther than "Grob". The exact Grob level is sort of like a meal with flour also (for rye), but you can keep turning it to the right-hand side, even past the Grob setting, and it will make chunkier stuff, like what I would imagine "chops" to be like. (Having never found/purchased actual labelled "chops" in a store). I haven't milled from the middle-levels between Fein and Chops much. This may not be a thorough reply since I've only used Fein and Grob...
gvz,
Thanks for the reply. It sounds like you are doing exactly what I am doing....I will just have to be brave and experiment with the other settings and see what happens :-)
The chunkier stuff doesn't come out like steep cut grain. With steel cut grains the pieces are chunkier - I imagine they do cut them somehow. With the KOMO the grain comes out thicker but more elongated and there is always a bit of flour so when soaked in a soaker the texture is different - more like an oatmeal/porrage consistency.
Again, thanks for your input.
Hope you are loving your KOMO as much as I am. It is a great machine!
Take Care,
Janet
Hi Janet,
I am loving my Komo! But, I have nothing to compare it with, but I think it is great! I usually chill my whole berries for a while in the fridge before milling them. I don't know if that matters...
I don't have any experience with true steel-cut berries, but here's an example of some "chunky chops" I tried to do with some whole rye berries, a bit father past "Grob".
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/24404/my-first-high-concentration-sd-rye-attempt
It is a very nice machine though.
I also have the sifting module for it, which works like a charm. But mostly I don't sift too much, but I did sift some in the link above. Mebake told me (I am paraphrasing) -- that if I am not tempering the grains before sifting, then a lot of the germ (?) is stuck to the bran... so until I look into tempering more, I am just using the full whole grain. Might as well anyway. I usually do long soakers or mashes with the full bran and everything in it. I am not ready yet to go full-boar and temper grains before milling.
Janet,
I found my old post about the sifting module.. in case you are interested.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/24147/fidibus-sifter
Currently I have not tried to temper grains before milling...
Hi gvz,
I considered sifting but decided against it as I prefer using all of the grain in my loaves. Someday I might reconsider - one never knows where this bread adventure will lead. :-)
The way you described your coarsely ground rye is how mine turned out too. The texture is very different from steel cut grain. With steel cut the grain stays in it's pre-soaked shape, it just gets softer and chewy whereas when I mill on the coarse setting and beyond the end result, after soaking, is more of a cereal texture - everything blends together like with oatmeal and it bakes up differently. The flavor is still there so it is okay. Nothing to complain about!
Take Care,
Janet
My friend Bill has done a really nice video on our KoMo mill...
http://fgpizza.com/store/page4.html#190
Frankie G
www.FGpizza.com