Tweet
O.k., there've been several discussions around grain mills but most are older. A few months ago I found a demo/review on cheaper cast iron and the Back to Basics grain mills (either here or on PAW productions...can't remember and can't find it again). So, I decided to 'take the plunge' and get a less expensive Back to Basics (Victorio) grain mill. I didn't know if I could bake with fresh whole grains and I didn't have a local source for bulk wheat, so I didn't want to spend $200 to $400 on an experiment. Sams club has the Victorio for about $65 including shipping. Here's a brief synopsys of my journey so far.
I had a #10 can of hard red winter wheat to use to start with (about 5lbs) and a recipe for whole wheat bread. It takes about 3 cups of flour for a loaf so I decided to make a two loaf batch to start with. The B to B grinder worked well and I was able to grind the flour fine enough for home made bread, that's the good news. The not so good news is that it took what seemed forever to grind 6 cups of flour. You get what you pay for (most of the time). The saying in the engineering/IT world is "Good, Fast, Cheap...pick two". This one is good and cheap so it's not fast...oh well.
The bread came out a little on the heavy side and, after doing some research, I know what I did wrong. First, too much flour. I had the dough too dry. Second, I used fast-acting yeast and let the first rise go too long. It wasn't 'lead bread' but also not sandwich quality...but it tasted great!
I've since found a local source for bulk wheat. 50lb bag of bakery quality wheat (hard white) for $32. Not the best price but when you live in yuppieville you take what you can get. Since finding that, I've purchased (today) a Wondermill junior deluxe and at least broke it in and ground some flour. The deluxe kit comes with both the stones and stainless steel grinding wheels.
I'm going to try the bread again with the hard white wheat and see what happens.
As a note for those who care about this kind of thing, here's what you get for 50 pounds of wheat. Since I prepare for just the two of us, I pack in 1 gallon mylar bags. In each bag, I put 12 cups of whatever I'm packing (leaves a little extra room in case I screw up the seal and have to cut it off and reseal). I'm not that OCD to have purposely measured this out. It just so happens that the most convenient scoop I have for that size bag is a 4 cup measurer and it takes 3 of them to fill the bags to my liking.
1 50 pound bag = 10 1 gallon mylar bags of wheat
I put 12 cups in each mylar bag
1 50 pound bag = approximately 120 cups of wheat
1 loaf of bread takes about 3 cups of flour
1 50 pound bag = approximately 40 loaves of bread
Now, the amount of flour to a loaf is going to vary by both recipe and temperature/humidity so ymmv.
There are two attachments that I might give a try with the Wondermill. First, for $30, is an attachment for a variable speed drill.
The second, for $60, is a v-groove pully to put a motor on it. I have a defunct drill press (freebie from a friend that has a bent shaft...the drill press not the friend LOL) that has a perfectly good motor, pully, belt and on/off switch. I'll try one/both of these if I start making enough flour to warrant the effort.
I had a #10 can of hard red winter wheat to use to start with (about 5lbs) and a recipe for whole wheat bread. It takes about 3 cups of flour for a loaf so I decided to make a two loaf batch to start with. The B to B grinder worked well and I was able to grind the flour fine enough for home made bread, that's the good news. The not so good news is that it took what seemed forever to grind 6 cups of flour. You get what you pay for (most of the time). The saying in the engineering/IT world is "Good, Fast, Cheap...pick two". This one is good and cheap so it's not fast...oh well.
The bread came out a little on the heavy side and, after doing some research, I know what I did wrong. First, too much flour. I had the dough too dry. Second, I used fast-acting yeast and let the first rise go too long. It wasn't 'lead bread' but also not sandwich quality...but it tasted great!
I've since found a local source for bulk wheat. 50lb bag of bakery quality wheat (hard white) for $32. Not the best price but when you live in yuppieville you take what you can get. Since finding that, I've purchased (today) a Wondermill junior deluxe and at least broke it in and ground some flour. The deluxe kit comes with both the stones and stainless steel grinding wheels.
I'm going to try the bread again with the hard white wheat and see what happens.
As a note for those who care about this kind of thing, here's what you get for 50 pounds of wheat. Since I prepare for just the two of us, I pack in 1 gallon mylar bags. In each bag, I put 12 cups of whatever I'm packing (leaves a little extra room in case I screw up the seal and have to cut it off and reseal). I'm not that OCD to have purposely measured this out. It just so happens that the most convenient scoop I have for that size bag is a 4 cup measurer and it takes 3 of them to fill the bags to my liking.
1 50 pound bag = 10 1 gallon mylar bags of wheat
I put 12 cups in each mylar bag
1 50 pound bag = approximately 120 cups of wheat
1 loaf of bread takes about 3 cups of flour
1 50 pound bag = approximately 40 loaves of bread
Now, the amount of flour to a loaf is going to vary by both recipe and temperature/humidity so ymmv.
There are two attachments that I might give a try with the Wondermill. First, for $30, is an attachment for a variable speed drill.
The second, for $60, is a v-groove pully to put a motor on it. I have a defunct drill press (freebie from a friend that has a bent shaft...the drill press not the friend LOL) that has a perfectly good motor, pully, belt and on/off switch. I'll try one/both of these if I start making enough flour to warrant the effort.
Comment