Wet grinder for wheat berries?
Hi all,
My brother recently got a dal / lentil grinder for dosas. For those not familiar, apparently the technique for making dosas is to soak the dal, and then grind the wet dal into a paste of sorts, which is then fermented…well that recipe is a whole other cool story. But what really caught my attention was the wet grinder — I looked inside and it was basically a flour grinder (to my untrained eye).
Could this grinder all grind dry wheat berries into flour? I’ll check the manufacturer’s specs, but given its label as a dal grinder, perhaps not.
Could I grind wet wheat berries, and make small batches of flour paste for bread?
It’s this latter question that I’d love to know if anyone has experience with.
Looking around online, I see a couple references that indicate how many cultures in the world use wet grinding instead of dry. And others that point out the obvious benefits of dry grinding (larger batch prep, and perhaps some specifics of the wheat berry that are better as a dry grind).
Any other thoughts you have would be much appreciated. Thanks!
Wet grinding is usually not recommended for any stone mill, as the wet berries get ground, some of the flour forms a paste that attaches to the stones, the stones get so that they no longer have crevices to grind the berries, and as a result, the stones do not turn freely, which can cause the mill to burn out . DAMHIKT. There are some mills that use steel plates with grooves cut into them, and for some of them, the manufacturer will say they are suitable for oily grains - though not positive how they would do with wet berries. I agree, you should contact the manufacturer. Some here, me included, have soaked berries to get them to sprout, but before running them through the mill, they are dried to avoid the problem with the stone wheels getting clogged.
@bytebreader, have you tried to mill dry wheat in the grinder?