Recommend grain mill
 

Can someone recommend a good grain mill, sturdy and well built, that can handle all common grains? Something that could be motorized and also hand-cranked would be my preference.

I want one that can handle dried corn, since I like grits and eat them daily. From some searches I've done, it seems that dried corn is one of the more difficult grains to grind, and can put a lot of wear on a grinder or mill.

Re: Recommend grain mill
 

Go herehttp://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/

Check out the Nutrimill for every day use....very cool mill as long as you have power
and the Country living mill for when TSHTF, there pricey with all the attachments & a rebuild kit , but there the best.

thanks to techguy or whomever it was (can't remember) for turning me on to the Nutrimill , it's a great mill !

Re: Recommend grain mill
 

Have a Country Living Mill, motorized. Can recommend. Had fresh ground flour waffles today, even.

Re: Recommend grain mill
 

I got one of these (non motorized). I'm still waiting for delivery. Supposed to be a great mill and supposedly can do quite a bit of flour by hand. You need to get a piece for $35 or so to do corn (my total cost with the corn attachment was $400 so it isn't cheap). It costs something like $300 to motorize.

Re: Recommend grain mill
 

if you can afford to get a used hobart 6 qt mixe, or even a commerical kitchen aid 6 qt mixer you can buy attachemts for it, including a grain mill attachment. I recomoned the higher end 800$+ price ones for the longevity. Older Hobarts and kitchenaids are rekowned for their longevity, some backshops using the same one for over 30 years.

There is no limit to the use of the machine with its attacments from meat grindres, sausage makers, grain mills, on and on. And after you are done milling the grain, you use the mixer to make the bread. You will be able to do small production for a household no problem.

we use big stand mixers and smaller table top mixers in our bakeshop and they just keep tickin, harldy any maitenence required, if any. I use a small 5 qt kitchen aid at home. Id rather invest in a more commercial line one for the longevity as im sure when the SHTF kitchenaid and hobart will be hard to contact :)

this way you arent buying a multitasking machine, you are buying a processing system that will do everything you need.

Re: Recommend grain mill
 

I may do something like this some time soon right now I'm using a Zojirushi bread machine ,it works great btw, but with the hobart I could make multiple loaves, and like you say a reliable machine for years to come.

FWIW ,this morning I made these with fresh ground whole wheat , I used rolled oats instead of oat bran cuz that's all I had, they came out great!







Whole Grain Sour Cream Blueberry Pancakes

1 1/2 C. whole wheat flour
1/4 C. wheat germ
1/2 C. oat bran
2 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
2 T. brown sugar

1 1/2 C. lowfat milk
1/2 C. sour cream
2 eggs
2 T. melted butter
1 C. blueberries

In a large bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients.
In a separate bowl whisk together, milk, sour cream and eggs.
Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon until just combined. Stir in melted butter and blueberries.
Drop pancake batter by 1/4 cupfuls (I just use a 1/4 dry measuring cup) onto a hot, greased griddle.
Pancakes are ready to flip when the edges stary to dry out and darken.
Enjoy!
Yield: 18 pancakes, 6 servings.

Re: Recommend grain mill
 

The Country Living mill looks great. But.... Heimdhal, you have given me something to think about.

For odd reasons that I won't go into, I have an assortment of mixers ranging from antique and modern Kitchen Aid mixers to a couple of old 20 qt commercial mixers. About 8 different mixers in all. I think the 10 qt Berkel and the 20 qt Hobart A-200 can probably handle just about anything you could throw at them. It never occurred to me to check to see if there were milling attachments for them.

Of course, all of them require electrical power to operate. That could be a big problem in a severe economic / social crisis.

Re: Recommend grain mill
 

I looked at the Kitchen Aid attachment, but I read there were multiple issues with them (I don't remember the exact problems, but eventually I decided not to go this route). I am pretty sure you could rig up some manual crank for one though if the need ever arose.

Re: Recommend grain mill
 

with the smaller, new version, yes they are not ideal. But with the older, all metal commercial bakeshop ones, there should be little issues.

The best point so far, and one i've thought of many times, what the lack of and need of power for these beast. Hand crank mills would be great to have no doubt, but in the mean time, enjoy the fruits of modern society...you dont NEED a mixer to make bread, but damn does it make it easier. Knead 100lbs of dough by hand:thumpdown

Re: Recommend grain mill
 

I have been using the country living mill for the last few months. It will grind corn with the bean auger attachement. I can hand crank 3 cups of flour in a few minuites which is enough for a loaf of bread. Here is a picture on a butcher block I built to hold it.

Re: Recommend grain mill
 

heres my "processing" center:tongue_ma:

no but really i do like that little handcrank one you got set up...no power=big plus! and the bench looks very nice

however, what happens wshtf and the bread machine doesnt work?!!!!! Just remember, when you knead, push away, turn 90 degrees, push away, turn 90 degrees, push away.........................:confused_ma:

Re: Recommend grain mill
 

Yikes, the country mill is pretty large. I might have a tough time passing it off as a $30 cheapy to my wife :).

Also, just curious, what's the best place to get corn? Just a feed store?

Re: Recommend grain mill
 

Nice looking professional setup. What is the mirror looking panel above the workstation?

Re: Recommend grain mill
 

I really like your setup there Heimy, but like Bob, my research has led me to the conclusion that the Kitchen Aid mill attachment is not the best route to go. The biggest problem seems to be that it tears up the newer KItchen Aid mixers that have some plastic components that really should be made of metal. My old Kitchen Aid that is really an ancient N50 in disguise would probably be fine, but users of the KA mill don't seem to be predominantly satisfied with it.

Soooooooo, I'm back to considering the Country LIving Mill, and I'm looking forward to building up more arm and upper body strength by cranking it a lot.

Re: Recommend grain mill
 

I like your setup MattC. That's what I'm likely to do now that I've studied it a bit. I even plan to mount it on a little table like yours.

I don't plan to use a bread machine though. I've got a Hearthkit oven insert for baking on. Works beautifully.

Re: Recommend grain mill
 

its a mirror:tongue_ma:

As far as the grain mills for the new kitchen aids, youre right, the newer accessories and kitchen aid stand mixers are NOT ideal, which is why i recomended older, used hobarts or kitchen aides back when hobart made them well. I am fairly dissapointed in the new models, kitchen aide killed the wonderful name they had built

but bread machines......the work of the DEVIL they are:bear_angry:

Re: Recommend grain mill
 

I like the Country Living mill. I may get one someday. I just purchased a Nutrimill which does an excellent job. There are lots of mills that will grind grain but only a few mills will grind very fine flour.

Re: Recommend grain mill
 

Is that for watching you and the wife kneading? :D

Re: Recommend grain mill
 

:haha::haha::haha::haha:

Re: Recommend grain mill
 

I bought my grain from honeyville grain. You can get 50 pound sacks of wheat and dent corn for around $40. THe shiping is a flat $4.95 no matter ow much you buy.

Grain mills are also great to crack wheat and oats for breakfast.

I can mix up 3 cups flour, 1 cup water, 3 tsp yeast & sugar, 1 salt a bit of butter in a bowl in a few minuites. Then I throw it in my kitchen Aid mixer with a dough hook for a few minuites. I bought the Zoj bread machine and don't use it. Probably actually going to ebay it.

HInt: if you dough isn't rsing, get a bit of vital wheat gluten, 3 or 4 tsp per loaf and no more trouble. Its wheat protein, the starch was washed away. You need hgh protien in your flour to catch the bubbles from teh yeast and pull up the bread. SOme whole grain wheat flour leaves a bit to be desired in the protein dept and makes a denser bread than we are used to.

Re: Recommend grain mill
 

no believe it or not that picture is one of the labs from the culinary school i attended and the mirror is for when chefs do demonstrations, the people in the back can see, by looking in the mirror. It was horribly misangled and you couldnt see crap outta it, but low and behold, it is still there!

Re: Recommend grain mill
 

not to be flippant, but if TSHTF, where would you get grain to put in a grain mill? I've tried growing corn in the garden, and IMO, its a total waste of time and garden space for the amount of corn you get from it. I can't even imagine trying to grow oats or wheat.

Re: Recommend grain mill
 

Hey-

You can also check out Lehmans' online catalogue-lots of goodies there.

Volzka

Re: Recommend grain mill
 

I will have close to 400lb's of wheat stored as of this Thursday. Obviously, it is too late to try to find it when you need it.

Re: Recommend grain mill
 

Yeah, I have about 100 lb of flour, and enough yeast and salt to make bread or whatever out of it. I got it on sale for 20 cents a pound last summer. It makes good bread, and since I make my own a lot, i can rotate it that way so it doesn't go bad on me. The 100 lbs is about all I can store easily. I've got it packed in coolers. I can't imagine where I'd put 400 lbs of wheat and not attract bugs with it. I have battles with the wife and kids already over why I have all this food stored up. They have no concept of what would happen if we ever have a bad harvest now that we are fueling SUV's with our crops. My guess is we are literally one bad harvest away from a famine.

Re: Recommend grain mill
 

How much wheat, corn, etc should we be looking to store for an adult for a one year period?

Re: Recommend grain mill
 

Re: Recommend grain mill
 

276 lbs for 1 person for a year sounds like a lot to me. I'd have thought 1/2 lb per day per person....

Even that would be a lot.

For a family of four you'd need to store 600 to 1000 lbs to be able to last a year. I'm thinking my stocks aren't as big as I was thinking they were.

Re: Recommend grain mill
 

anyone have experience of simple hand crank grain mills? i'm looking at buying the unit below, to grind millet, as it seems millet is the nicest of the gluten-free alternatives to wheat:

http://www.northerntooluk.com/images...up/168670E.jpg

the site mentions that this mill won't grind wheat finely enough to make flour, but we've used millet flakes to make bread without a problem, so i'm figuring even fairly coarsely ground millet will be ok to make bread with.

Re: Recommend grain mill
 

I also use the country living grain mill, with the motor kit. It grinds extremely fine flour.

Re: Recommend grain mill
 

Without the motor, the Country Living Mill can be a part of your physical fitness program. You will break a sweat!

Re: Recommend grain mill
 

Since I started this thread so long ago, I'll comment on what I decided.

I bought the Country Living Grain Mill, along with the larger bean auger so I can grind corn. I mounted my mill on a 12 inch by 12 inch by 1.5 inch thick cutting board with inset metal plates top and bottom and bolts clear through to make it solid and strong. I clamp the cutting board to my kitchen table when I want to use it. I did not buy the motor, but I'm still tempted.

Fatboy you are right, grinding is a workout. I haven't timed myself, but I normally grind two to four cups of hard red winter wheat at a time. I have to wear a bandanna rolled up as a sweatband and minimal loose clothing like I'm going to the gym because I sweat so much when I'm cranking the mill.

I love this mill. I'm very pleased with my purchase. I think it is probably the best grain mill you can buy.