Hi!
Recently got my new Mockmill 100, and just milled some einkorn. Wow what a flour it became, so fine!
Just wondered a little about how you guys use mills. I saw the quick start guide and that was great. Some additional Q:s
Is it important to feed it with cold grains to keep the flour cold? And if so do you guys freeze your grains or keep them in the fridge?
Is there anything to keep in mind that could potentially break the stones? ( I know about not grinding wet or fatty stuff)
All of the grains I mill with my Mockmill are at room temp. When I mill a couple lbs of a grain, the flour gets warm, a little over 100°F. It doesnât really effect anything I use the flour for so I donât worry about it.
I do not leave the mill out so when I need to mill grain I have to get the thing out and set up. I do 2 or 3 lbs each of several grains, wheat, durum, rye, oats, barley. I will disassemble the mill and use a pastry brush to clean up the stones and such between milling each grain, but there is always some of one kind of flour that gets into another kind of flour. Not enough to make a difference. The stones get warm but cool down while cleaning up between grains. I did a temp reading on the stones after milling 5 lbs of wheat and they were around 113°F.
Supposedly, you should not mill popcorn. I suspect it is because of the ratio of hard outer shell to softer pulp inside is higher with smaller popcorn kernels than it is with regular, full-size kernels of corn, making popcorn kernels like little rocks that can damage the milling stones. I have no problems milling polenta from flint corn. Flint corn is the hardest of all corns ⌠âhard as flintâ, hence the name âflintâ corn. I do a couple passes, the first pass to make cracked corn, the second pass to get the size of ground corn I want.
The idea of not putting âfatsâ in the mill is to protect the stones from getting gummed up. The idea applies to anything that is âsoftâ, like shelled sunflower seeds, or sun dried tomatoes. You donât want to put those kinds of things in your mill.
Congrats on your new mill, you are going to love it. Hugely big difference in the flavor of freshly milled flours.
Like @Otis I donât freeze or chill my grains. I leave my mill out though, and mill on demand, up to about 1kg at a time, which might be two whole grain loaves, or many more partially whole grain breads.
I disassemble and clean the mill with a brush every few months (or longer) when I do something wacky like try to re-mill warm, already fine flour. That can jam things.
If I run something colorful thru it like purple corn, I might do a quick pass of some rice just to not have any trace of the color in the next milling.
Thank you for the reply!
BlockquoteCongrats on your new mill, you are going to love it. Hugely big difference in the flavor of freshly milled flours.
Thank you, the flour it produces is really something different than what you can buy. Looking forward to this
Thanks! Good to know!
Hello,
I have not found pre-cooling/freezing the grains to be necessary⌠My mill is an Austrian Salzburg MT18 mill with 120mm genuine granite stones that turn at 850rpm. If you have a handheld infrared thermometer, you can easily check the output temp of your flour as itâs being milled to see if any other actions are needed.
Cheers!