Electric Flour Mills

[Chris Hennes]

3 hours ago, adey73 said:

what was the rub? ... or was it the lack of rub?

 

Modernist Bread, 2•222 said:

Key disadvantages: Grinds 450g/1lb wheat kernels in 30 minutes; the grain temperature increased by 8°C/15°F; particle size is uneven (though you can mill finer grain by adjusting the know past the lowest setting); milled grain twice, sifted through 210 micron screen, and obtained only 40% yield.

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

6 hours ago, adey73 said:

what was the rub? ... or was it the lack of rub?

 

As Chris said.  However one should note the comments pertained to the mixer attachment version of the Mockmill, not the stand alone versions of the Mockmill.

 

[Chris Hennes]

On 1/1/2017 at 11:11 AM, gfron1 said:

Curious if anyone's thoughts have changed on the matter since the last update on this thread. I've been thinking about sourcing a traditional Indian Ghantti but the ease of the NutriMill or KoMo has me intrigued.

Rob, did you end up getting a Ghantti? Or another mill? I didn't really expect to be in the market for a grain mill, but some of the possibilities are pretty intriguing. 

[gfron1]

1 hour ago, Chris Hennes said:

Rob, did you end up getting a Ghantti? Or another mill? I didn't really expect to be in the market for a grain mill, but some of the possibilities are pretty intriguing. 

I ended up with the NutriMill. I'm using it less than expected because it turns out we're buying 100% local grains, and that means the farmers are grinding for us to our specs - in other words, we're doing way too much for the NutriMill.

[Chris Hennes]

Yeah, your volume is a bit larger than mine will be  

[adey73]

can these things grind anything unctuous like vanilla beans?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

4 hours ago, adey73 said:

can these things grind anything unctuous like vanilla beans?

 

I do not believe so.

 

[andiesenji]

1 hour ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

I do not believe so.

 

I have ground vanilla beans, chopped, in a poppyseed grinder - the hand-cranked type that look like a minature meat grinder.

 

A wet grinder, with the stone wheels - will grind them into a fine paste.  Like the Ultra Pride grinder

Edited December 16, 2017 by andiesenji (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

31 minutes ago, andiesenji said:

I have ground vanilla beans, chopped, in a poppyseed grinder - the hand-cranked type that look like a minature meat grinder.

 

A wet grinder, with the stone wheels - will grind them into a fine paste.  Like the Ultra Pride grinder

 

 

But that's a different animal.

 

[Maison Rustique]

I'm going to revive this thread because I am suddenly interested in getting an electric flour mill. If there is a more recent thread that discusses, please direct me to it, as I didn't see it. I assume in the several years since this one was active, there may be new products and people will have had different experiences with what they have.

 

First off, I'm not a professional and do not need anything extra fancy or enormous. If fact, the smaller, the better since I have limited kitchen space. Electric is a must because of my hand issues. Inexpensive but efficient is what I'm looking for at this time. Something that will handle all the various types of grain and mill well-enough for my mediocre bread-baking attempts. Any thoughts?

 

And, since I have no experience with it, should I anticipate any difficulty in purchasing whole grains in reasonable quantities and varieties?

 

Thanks for any thoughts!

[palo]

A thought...Kitchen Aid has an attachment - no idea how efficient, or why it wouldn't suit your needs

 

It may have been discontinued as I couldn't find it on Amazon(CA) - I bought on when I got my first KitchenAid - never used and ended up giving to my sister-in-law - other sources have it for about $190 CDN

 

p

[Maison Rustique]

I have also learned from a friend that she uses her Vitamix to mill flour. I've got an Aldi knock-off and am going to give it a try to see how it turns out. If I can use something I've already got, all the better.

[jedovaty]

Hi:

First a tip: if you use the vitamix (or any fast-home mill for that matter), it helps to keep your berries in the freezer, you'll end up both preventing bugs in the long term and keep the flour from overheating.  Many people on the internet recommend not overheating the flour since apparently it'll lose its nutritional component, because, you know, it's not like it'll get baked in the oven at a higher temperature later 🙄

 

I used the vitamix to grind wheat berries for a long time (5200 model from 2010), and it was great.  A friend had a mockmill and, we compared the results of baked bread afterwards (did not compare the flour itself, decided to use the flour for our tests).  There was no noticeable difference, and our conclusion to why get a dedicated machine:  first and foremost, get one if you want one; second it is nice having a mill size via setting and just pushing a button to go vs setting a timer with the vitamix; and third to have a nice appliance to look at. Again, slight differences in flour consistency, grind size, etc, did not make a difference for us home bakers.

 

So try before you buy.  You will need to experiment with timing first.

 

Now some fun stuff.

Also, if you like the end results from the vitamix, you might decide to investigate their dry container.  I have both thanks to costco bundle, and a few years ago compared the two side by side grinding 1 cup (~175g) frozen berries for 45 seconds, then sifting from a 40-mesh sieve from breadtopia.  I should have used a larger quantity, but I typically only need less than 1 cup whole wheats.  I lost the photo I took of the results, but here was the difference:

 

- Dry container: flour measured 85F temp, and sifting revealed incomplete grind, leaving 57g in the sifter (68% extraction)
- Regular container: flour measured 96F temp, and sifting revealed much finer, more complete grind, leaving 24g in the sifter (86% extraction); there was still an errant berry or two.  Funny coincidence with the flipped numbers.

 

The dry container would probably yield similar results if we let it run longer, and certainly had the option to do so since the temperature was lower.  I will also guess that it would perform better with a bit more quantity, as it sent the berries flying in the container vs. the vortex of the regular one.  The dry container creates an "inverse vortex" and I think this design is meant to keep temperature lower, let you grind more quantity and longer, and thus achieve a more uniform particle size.  We concluded the dry container is not a required purchase unless you use the vitamix often for other purposes and don't want to wait for it to dry or clean between uses.

 

The dry container is is nice luxury to have if you have the space for it and use the blender on a regular basis.  Before I got a wet grinder, I also used the dry container to make nut butters, results were same as standard container but was slightly easier to get the goods out due to orientation of the blades.

 

And even more fun stuff:

I also have an ek43 coffee grinder (don't judge me).  I stopped drinking coffee and, not wanting to sell this grinder, decided to try it with wheat berries.  It grinds up small quantities faster than the vitamix and appeals to my inner lazy because I don't have to time to get my desired grind size.  Naturally, this became my current flour mill.  And more FWIW, I had an opportunity to test out Maelkoenig's flour burrs, and didn't find any material differences compared to the coffee burrs for the small quantities I mill.

 

If you've read this far, here's one more thing.  One day I accidentally bumped the grind size setting on the ek43 so it was set to fairly coarse when I milled the wheat.  I baked with the flour anyway, and I really enjoyed the result.. the texture of the resulting bread was excellent, a bit moister than if the flour were finely ground. 

 

Anyway, I may not have a blast chamber or chamber vac sealer or a centrifuge or homogenizer or whatever else gadgets everyone here has, but I still feel like I belong because I'm using a >$3,000 grinder to mill flour for my bread.  So there. 😝

[Barrytm]

Maison,  I have owned a number of different mills over the years, though none that were manual.  I keep meaning to do a webpage listing the pros and cons of the different ones, but have never finished. 

 

In general, not much has changed since the later posts in this thread.  For compact, Komo makes a great entry that is also quite stylish.  The Mockmill is similarly compact, but many will not find the appearance all that attractive. The Nutrimill Harvest is similar in appearance to the Komo, though I did not have that much luck with the one I got and I returned it ( it was  the only one I bought new )

 

As for berries, usually you will get the best pricing buying in bulk - either 25 or 50 pound bags.  That works against getting lots of varieties.  You will want to see if there is an LDS store near you - you don't need to be a member.  Otherwise, you would want to check your local organic or similar food stores - it is unlikely they will carry much in stock, but the one near me lets me order 25 pound bags.  Shipping can be prohibitive, but, Azure Standard works a bit like a buying club - if there is a drop location near you, you save on shipping https://www.azurestandard.com/healthy-living/about-us/get-organic-products-delivered/   If not, AllBulk foods will direct ship, though you will need to check the shipping prices   https://allbulkfoods.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwof6WBhD4ARIsAOi65aicuLE9tfaL4-l1yTQ_7ADA8sP2L1oJyzhBN3fxMaw45P4YA1nvi9IaAgAJEALw_wcB  ..

[Maison Rustique]

Thank you both for all this thoughtful, helpful advice! 

[jedovaty]

Whoops, sorry, didn't click with me that you did not have a vitamix, hopefully the aldi-branded blender can handle berries.  I don't see why it wouldn't.  Good luck