# Milling Grains



## lazydaisy67 (Nov 24, 2011)

A while back I purchased an inexpensive cast iron hand grinder just to have something on hand. It's like "grandma's" and clamps onto the edge of the counter. I'm not totally happy with the end results of the grinding. It's a rather coarse, pebbly-type 'meal', not a powdery flour by any means. Makes a nice, heavy loaf which hubby and I like a lot, but the kids are turning their noses up at it because it's "gritty". 
I keep hoping I will be able to get a Wondermill, but I had some questions. The Wondermill has the two metal plates with teeth on them that grind together to crush the grain. My cheap one has them too. Looking at ancient methods of grain grinding it seems like two stones were used for centuries. Granted, Im not talking donkey's walking in a circle here, but there is a hand held mill from Germany that has two stones inside of it. It's about the same price as the wondermill, a little more maybe. Looks a lot like the antique coffee grinders. The flour collects in the drawer at the bottom of the mill. I'm assuming volume would be the biggest issue with a hand held model like that, although it is considerably bigger than a coffee grinder. Just wondering if anybody has an opinion about the most cost effective mill. If I'm going to plunk down a hefty chunk of change I want to get the MOST bang for my buck with the best results.


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## Dakine (Sep 4, 2012)

I was going to try this Victorio, but some of the reviews I read this morning are not very favorable and they're recent. If all of the bad reviews are several years old I'm more willing to think that maybe the manufacturer corrected a defect or something, but that doesnt seem to be the case here.
http://www.amazon.com/Victorio-VKP1012-Hand-Operated-Grain/dp/B0018P54TS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1352906523&sr=8-1&keywords=grain+mill

I have wanted this Country Living mill for a long time, I just didnt want to drop $430 on it. But I think it would be better to get this in the first place than spend $50 on something like the victorio and then end up buying this anyway.
http://www.amazon.com/Country-Living-Hand-Grain-Mill/dp/B003UNNE3E/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1352906892&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=country+harvest+grain+mill

I think buying straight from the manufacturer the price is about the same, and they do free shipping on anything over $100, and they also sell superpails of a wide variety of grains.


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## Freyadog (Jan 27, 2010)

I have the Wondermill and also the country mill. When pressed for time I use the wondermill, when time is not a factor I use the country mill. With the country mill we bought the bean and corn auger.

I have never checked to see if the Wondermill will do beans and corn. Guess I could look but we use the country mill for big stuff.


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

Daisy, I have a Wondermill Jr. and use it quite a bit. I ordered a set of stones for it along with the steel burs it came with and it will grind just about anything you want to run through it, from dry beans, corn, dehydrated eggs(to powder them) and even dried peppers for chili powder.

It had a base price of around $220.00 and it I found it to be worth the money.


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## Dakine (Sep 4, 2012)

That wondermill jr looks pretty cool! I'm going to look into that. Maybe I wont get the Country Living mill just yet. Thanks!


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

Freyadog said:


> I have the Wondermill and also the country mill. When pressed for time I use the wondermill, when time is not a factor I use the country mill. With the country mill we bought the bean and corn auger.
> 
> I have never checked to see if the Wondermill will do beans and corn. Guess I could look but we use the country mill for big stuff.


The Wondermill Jr. does do beans and corn, it also does a pretty good job making peanut butter and other nut butters.

So far I haven't found anything it wont handle and no special attachments or parts are needed.

Because it is a general purpose grinder, it may not grind somethings as fast or easy more expensive models but it certainly does a good enough job for me and I'm very happy with it.


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## lazydaisy67 (Nov 24, 2011)

oh cool!! I didn't know they had the stones as an accessory! I'm not saying that I have to have stones, was just thinking out loud about how grain grinding has been done for hundreds of years so thought it made sense. Well, looks like I know what I'm going to ask Santa for Christmas!!


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## mosquitomountainman (Jan 25, 2010)

For now (with your current mill) you might try running the grain through twice when you want a finer grind. We use our Corona to grind everything from chicken feed to flour. I've ground 50 lbs. of grain for the chickens in about 2 hours with it. When we use it to grind grain for cooking we normally do just enough for the job at hand.

We have an electric K-tec, Kitchen Mill we use most of the time for grinding flour (wheat and corn). It works great (wonderful, fine flour on the frst pass) and is relatively fast but is horrendously loud. If it broke we'd probably find something else that didn't make so much noise.


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## siletz (Aug 23, 2011)

We use our electric mill on a daily basis, but also have a hand cranked mill. For our hand cranked mill, we have the Wondermill Jr Deluxe like this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Wonder-Junior...53020800&sr=1-1&keywords=wondermill+jr+deluxe

The deluxe part means it comes with both the metal and stone grinders so make sure you get the deluxe version.


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## lilmissy0740 (Mar 7, 2011)

Does the Wondermill Jr Deluxe, grind the wheat for a silky flour or do you have to put it through more than once? There is a post that I asked almost the same question about the grain mills, gee, I think I asked last yr! We are buying one in about 2 weeks and as of now, the WM Jr Deluxe is my pick.


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## Lori64 (Sep 22, 2012)

I bought the victorio not too long ago. The price was right (it came with some yeast and dough enhancer), but I wanted to see if grinding my own wheat was worth it before I invested a bunch of money in a big electric version. I figured having a non electric 1 is a good idea anyway so that was an extra. I have used it and omg that bread was good! It didn't take me very long to grind enough but I wouldn't want to have to do it every day. If it gets to that point that I have to make bread from fresh ground using my Victorio, I will either have a couple of daughters to help or it will be just the 2 of us and it wouldn't be too bad to keep us in enough bread.
I'll soon be looking for an electric mill. I'm trying to decide between buying the attachment for my Kitchenaid mixer or should I get a stand-alone?


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## siletz (Aug 23, 2011)

Lilmissy: The tighter you put the grinder wheels, the finer your flour will be, but the harder it will be to turn the handle.  It gives you flour comparable to store bought.

Lori: I had the same question before buying my Nutrimill. I read some reviews that said the Kitchenaid attachment wasn't the greatest and I didn't want to chance ruining my machine asking it to do too much. So, I bought the Nutrimill and absolutely LOVE it! It makes flour quicker than anything. It is pretty loud, though.


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## bunkerbob (Sep 29, 2009)

Here is our setup, for grinding and rolling. Also do some stock feed making, use them all.

BB


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## Lori64 (Sep 22, 2012)

Siletz - 1 of my concerns is overloading my mixer. I had heard the meat grinder attachment could burn up the motor and wondered about the wheat grinder attachment.

BB - you just leave everything set up?

What I wouldn't do to have my grandmothers around for advice.


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## bunkerbob (Sep 29, 2009)

Lori64 said:


> Siletz - 1 of my concerns is overloading my mixer. I had heard the meat grinder attachment could burn up the motor and wondered about the wheat grinder attachment.
> 
> BB - you just leave everything set up?
> 
> What I wouldn't do to have my grandmothers around for advice.


 Yes I leave them set up all the time. 
We grind meat with our K5A KitchenAid all the time, never any problems after more than 20 years.


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## jsriley5 (Sep 22, 2012)

Lori64 said:


> I bought the victorio not too long ago. The price was right (it came with some yeast and dough enhancer), but I wanted to see if grinding my own wheat was worth it before I invested a bunch of money in a big electric version. I figured having a non electric 1 is a good idea anyway so that was an extra. I have used it and omg that bread was good! It didn't take me very long to grind enough but I wouldn't want to have to do it every day. If it gets to that point that I have to make bread from fresh ground using my Victorio, I will either have a couple of daughters to help or it will be just the 2 of us and it wouldn't be too bad to keep us in enough bread.
> I'll soon be looking for an electric mill. I'm trying to decide between buying the attachment for my Kitchenaid mixer or should I get a stand-alone?


Uh you might want to get started on them pretty soon it takes a minute before they are ready to grind flour  sorry just being a smart @$$ today.

Hope to hear more good stuff about the victorio as that is what just arrived at my house today in the fed ex truck. I hope to purchase a second mill for a backup I'd hate to be down to mortar and pestle or beating it into submission with a post and a cement or stone crock. Yeah I know I should expect to get what I pay for unfortunately it was going to be a year or more before a 300 dollar mill was even going to be considered and i'm not sure I have that long besides if I can get a good look at one worst comes to worst I"m sure I can cobble one together with stuf I can round up. I"m pretty crafty especially when the need is great.

Also where do you all get yer grains. I know it can be ordered on line, and I"m going to cross my fingers and look at Sams. And I know I will be able to grow my own once feilds are not being used for commercial agriculture. I keep thinking I"d like to just go to the feed and seed and pick up a hundred lb bag bring it hame and put it in my own buckets but have seen concerns expressed about potentially poisonous musts and fungus. So keeping in mind I"m horribly cheap where do you all shop for whole grains such as wheat, oats, rye, barley etc.


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## Lori64 (Sep 22, 2012)

Thats funny now that I reread it. 
There will either be a couple of the daughters here to help.....

I picked up a 25# bag of wheat at Walmart. I've made several things and love the stuff. I've cooked it in the crockpot and put that in everything. I like it but DH not as much. He loved the bread though. I'm in about the same spot as you. I'm looking to order buckets..... We can have it delivered to Sam's but that's an hour away to pick it up, or I can pay a bit more and have it delivered to the house. I haven't found anyone local. The bakery has a source from out of state so....

As for the grinder, it didn't kill me or anything. I don't want to do it every day but if that was our only way to have bread, I'd be ok grinding every few days. I'm happy with it so far but an auto 1 will be nice to have.

I don't even want to think about growing our own grains. If we're at that point, everything will be manual.


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## Lori64 (Sep 22, 2012)

BB - maybe I'll try grinding meat and see how mine does.


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## Jimthewagontraveler (Feb 8, 2012)

I have been buying corn at feed stores for many years.
Realize it is not sweet corn.
I just ground them in a 1940 Ish meat grinder.
But it did take 2 passes. 
Sure made a lot of cornbread.


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## cantinawest (Nov 9, 2011)

*Finallly purchased a grain/flour mill...*

After being without one for about a year.
It is supposed to be one of the best on the market.
L'Equip
http://www.lequip.com/product.php?prod_id=31&title=Nutrimill

It is electric, but we do have some of the inexpensive hand mills as well, though they do not do flour very well.
I plan on using a solar generator to run nothing more than the grinder and a freezer when there is no electricity available from the grid.


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## Caribou (Aug 18, 2012)

I get my wheat at the LDS Cannery. They will also ship if you don't have one near you.


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