Making your own flour and cornmeal plus cooking with it.

[Old Greenhorn]

CE is the Canadian equivalent of UL and I think also accepted in the EU, but I am going from fogggy memeory here, so sheck it out for yourself. It's not Chinese. 

[21incher]

CE is the Canadian equivalent of UL and I think also accepted in the EU, but I am going from fogggy memeory here, so sheck it out for yourself. It's not Chinese.

The CE marking basically means nothing it only means the manufacturer has self certified the product for the European market. There has been no outside testing and it is nowhere near the same as UL. 
UL means it has been certified by an outside agency to meet all US standards.  In the past I had new products UL tested and they would never let things like this pass. 
Just like all the cheap CE rated e bike battery packs that are starting fires. The more expensive LG and similar packs are UL rated and rarely have a problem.  

[21incher]

Trailer!
The truck was a buck, the fees are outrageous.

I've committed to one grain with this mill, so I'm really interested in how yours does on other grains, and beans and rice. I can see having an "everything else" mill somewhere in there. Where did you get your screens?

So it wants 45 amp protection at one end and has built in 50 amp protection at the other end of, a 12 gauge 20 amp line. That is the bun warmer feature. Outside is good.

I tried to keep grinding as the rain increased one day. As I lowered the door it didn't take long for me to shut down and wait. Grain mills, the building, can go boom... I'm not sure of the proper A/F mixture.

Mine is mainly wood framed and rock, that must be keeping it static free. I noticed in an old Williams catalog that they put a trap door in the bottom of their mill that is similar to mine, for cleanout. I feel some desecration coming on. Williams was a competitor that Meadows later bought out. If I could apply strong suction to the bottom and blow air in the intake, I'll bet it'll get better than 90% of it.

This one is kind of a monster but seems to work good on everything I have tried. Definitely takes some fiddling to adjust the fineness of the grind.  I don't  really have anything to compare it to so thats just my opinion. Supposed to be able to grind about 160 pounds of soy beans an hour. That probably would look like a nuclear cloud of dust I bet.
I got the screens from Amazon that probably wasn't the cheapest but instant satisfaction with next day delivery.  The 40 and 60 mesh I bought are really small and slow. The 20 mesh is bigger and better. Still trying  to find a 16 mesh but can only find that in a sifter can so far with a crank that I may try. Thinking I may just order mesh and build larger trays with some type of shaker frame someday to speed things up. But for now I am only doing a couple cups of flower at a time. 

[SwampDonkey]

Another option for a stand for your mill is a cart with wheel brakes. One with no lip on the top. A shelf on the bottom with a lip. I use one from Uline for the AC unit. So I can take out the AC for the winter and wheel it into a corner out of the way and cover it. Solid and will carry several thousand lbs. :D

I have a tomato press by this brand, and it was a fail. The skins and seeds did not exit the end like they should. They used a plastic screw, which is a big no no, instead of a cast screw. With these tomato mills, the machine is not to run unless the hopper is filled, even the high end machines.

[21incher]

Another option for a stand for your mill is a cart with wheel brakes. One with no lip on the top. A shelf on the bottom with a lip. I use one from Uline for the AC unit. So I can take out the AC for the winter and wheel it into a corner out of the way and cover it. Solid and will carry several thousand lbs. :D

I have a tomato press by this brand, and it was a fail. The skins and seeds did not exit the end like they should. They used a plastic screw, which is a big no no, instead of a cast screw. With these tomato mills, the machine is not to run unless the hopper is filled, even the high end machines.

I originally thought it would be permanent in my basement kitchen but now know it's an outside machine, Definitely need something with wheels now or a shed just outside the door and my wife claimed the stainless one when that happens.  They have 2 levels of machines. The lowest cost ones are basically homeowners machines and won't last long or always work good. They have a commercial version of the tomato squeezes with a much longer cast aluminum auger and finer screen that I have seen working.  It looked to be equivalent of my old squeeze that we have used almost 40 years. I find some of this Chinese stuff works and some doesn't.  It's definitely all throw away in the end because manufacturers make stuff to the distributors specs and they come and go. If you are young and want something that lasts 50 years spend the money for the original. Being old, I don't need more then 15 years from things anymore makes me go for affordable copies that work. Like how Harbor Freight has taken off being the number one tool distributor in the US at this point. People need affordable options and are willing to accept some risk to get them.

[Don P]

The next 2 generations of millers were nodding in agreement when Sammie instructed me to always leave grain in the mill. This was so there was no chance of the stones bumping on startup. Like yours, mine has a spring that keeps the burrs apart and the adjustment brings them closer together. Because I am running infrequently, I am having to open up and empty the mill. So I'm disobeying, I guess I should be hand turning until it establishes feed and a kernel or two in the stones. They have not touched from starting dry but I don't have much experience. I have touched lightly twice, and I can see the glazed spot where they did. The smell of stones rubbing was immediate and the sound, well, it does about the same thing to you as seeing sparks come out of the log you're cutting. In both cases I was sneaking up on as fine as it could grind. For corn that was foolishness.

Why the meticulous cleanup... I've thrown weevils out of the mill, yuuck, and I was about 30 lbs into grinding when I realized it. Chickens thought it was intentional just for them.
I've had a 1.5lb bag with a window on the countertop for 11 days from the last run, that is weevil free, an experiment to see if eggs are in the grain or mill. I believe the elevator is clean. I think I can introduce them with a dirty mill where a moth has laid eggs in old meal. So deep clean before and after a run. I seem to have the truck mouse tight but not gnat tight yet. If I'm dreaming, a reefer trailer with better door seals, my rollup is a dry box but not an especially tight box. Doors that swing and pin back to the sides would probably be better, and a lower deck. Mine is a mafunzalo operation on a rustoleum rebuild  :D.

One thing with the stones rubbing. The old methods did very often grind the hand stones together, think of the native American metate and mano, the quern mill, the stone roller mills, mortar and pestle. The mills where the stone touched introduced grit, which over time is not good for your teeth. With some stones this was a serious issue. In the stone mills like mine, or an old water powered mill, the stones do not touch and the intention is to cut rather than crush the grain. This was a cultural/technological leap.

The early Meadows corn cleaner is another hexagonal reel type bolter with 2 screens, one coarser than a kernel, one finer. The clean kernels exit between screens. I'm assuming they could easily make round bolters and cleaners but were making hexagons to create some beating action?


Just as an aside, is there any way to layout a simple auger other than many circular donuts that are split, stretched to a spiral and welded end to end, one volute at a time? Duh, I think the etymology of re volute just hit me  :D

edit: I'm spinning at ~500RPMs on the rocks.

[21incher]

I back mine off between cleanings because it calls for double grindings. I don't really think it is necessary though. I once made an simple crude auger by cutting large doughnuts on my cnc plasma table then stretching them. was not pretty and took a lot of grinding to get the seams tight. Definitely wouldn't do it again. I have seen people 3d print them with nylons and carbon fiber filament and they looked nice plus are tough. Make 1 ft sections that interlock together for longer runs. Could even make sand molds from 3d printed ones to cast aluminum. Probably best thing is watch craigslist for something used if your not in a hurry. They also sell nice steel augers for battery operated post hole diggers in smaller sizes that are fairly cheap and stretched steel. Might be able to pin a couple together for longer runs. Not food grade though.

Made our first cornbread with my ground white wheat and cornmeal. Wow is that tasty, nothing like commercial flours. Very good rich corn taste and beautiful texture. This mill is definitely going to put a couple pounds on me. Oatmeal flour pancakes tomorrow.



 

 

[SwampDonkey]

Looks good to. ;)

Had our first home made squash pie from the squash I picked a few days ago. We've eaten some as a vegetable and it was nice and ripe and dry. Dryness is a trait of these squash. Just lather the butter on. ;D 

[21incher]

First loaf of home ground red winter wheat bread. Wow is it good


  
Just amazing the flavor fresh ground flour has.

[Don P]

That looks good! 
I'm back from a niece's wedding. I passed out bags of cornmeal and had made cornbread for all of us in the house. A BIL has gotten into breadmaking so we plumped up into our clothes nicely  :D. I should have product on both coasts by tomorrow. 

 Current events, a comment in your video, and grinding one's own grain brought back a memory. My folks were Peace Corps volunteers in Moldova years ago, next door to Ukraine. The Holodomor of 1932-33, was not an isolated event, but the worst I know of. Stalin confiscated the wheat and grindstones of the Ukranian people and committed genocide, millions of people starved. The reason Russians live there now, and where the Russians live in Ukraine, where the fighting is gong on now, is where they depopulated the heaviest in that genocide. The memorial to the confiscation that comes to mind is a stack of millstones in Kiev (I think). Throughout history this has happened, whether it was breadmaking monks using the peasants stones to pave the abbey floor to force purchase of their bread, or landlords exercising their "right" to force peasants to use the banal mill. Aside from tasting great, every community should have a few mills just for basic food security. Grain is the easiest long storage food, the staff of life.

[21incher]

The bread had excellent flavor but my wife used 100% red hard wheat and it is too crumbly to be used for sandwiches. Really good sliced thick and toasted.  We have to learn how to blend the types of wheat for a little  more elasticity. 
I understand this time the shortages will be different.  The minute the news started saying  shortages futures started rising.  At the same time large companies have started up buying all the grains they can get their hands on filling empty old warehouses.  That will eventually create a real supply shortage for mom and pop operations.  Then prices skyrocket as it's slowly released.  It's  all about money and impossible to tell who is working with who anymore. I like baked goods so it is a fun hobby that actually can help isolate me from what's going on in the world at the same time. 
A local guy sells used food grade 30 and 55 gallon barrels that I may look into if I find a local grain supply. Kind of looks like off the combine grains need further cleaning but that's the cheapest option. 

[Paul_H]

We've been growing corn as a grain ever since I had sweet corn turned starchy and wondered how it could be used. I dried and ground it and made a decent cornbread and parched corn. The next year we grew Floriana corn and used it for pancakes and cornbread and even began making nixtimal after soaking the corn in a lye solution from our wood ash for tortillas. We used an old hand grinder that is now driven by an electric motor. We have a different grinder for wheat and a small roller for oats.



Last year we harvested 100lbs of dry corn and we've grown red winter wheat on a small scale because we have a dry climate and it's ripe just before the hot dry summers begin. Last year we only got 8lbs of wheat and we use a pedal powered thresher and then finish with a pedal powered cleaner.

There is a local company that grows and purchases organic grains from the local farms and it has really taken off although drought has been an issue in 2021 and 23. We buy 40lb bags of Red Winter wheat and other grains and store in 30 gal metal garbage cans. We like the idea of a local supply and want to make sure they prosper.
We're new to grinding wheat for bread on a regular basis and are really enjoying this thread and benefitting from the expertise. Up until this year we were making bread with regular flour and sometimes adding a 1/3 riced potato to 2/3 flour like they do in this video. It's very good.

The Great Wheat Shortage of 1797 - Bread for the Commoners - YouTube

The drought this year in western Canada has hit many grain growers on the prairies and elsewhere and rice supplies  have been cutoff somewhat as producing nations are holding back food to feed their own people so sourcing local and growing a large garden makes more and more sense.

Certified Organic Grains | Fieldstone Granary (fieldstoneorganics.ca)


The Poor Man's Bread - YouTube

[21incher]

I can't wait to grow my own corn. I am starting to think wheat may be a lot of work with the harvesting and cleaning. My wife wants to try the tortillas someday.
I tried to quickly finish up the second half of the grinder video. Found I had made toxic flour for believing what I read on the internet about how any dried bean could be be ground for flour. Well there are some that can make you sick or kill you if used in baking where they don't hit proper temps to kill the toxins I found out when searching for recipes. I will say I have had good luck with that grinder so far but it is a monster for home use.
Getting Started Grinding Our Own Flower & Cornmeal With A Commercial Vevor Grain Grinder Part 2 Of 2 - YouTube

[Don P]

I enjoy Townsend's videos. This is another of a tour through a flour mill. It was neat how much it looks like the old water powered roller mill just larger scale and metal vs wood.

How King Arthur Baking Produces 100 Million Pounds of Flour per Year — Dan Does - YouTube

There is a difference in these and the stone mills in the old mill building. Where the manager here is talking about as many as 6 breaks in the roller mill, the stone mill is "single pass" milling (which is a selling point) and that is where the larger sets of stones did a better job. For corn I'm fine, for wheat a 36" diameter stone has a lot better chance of getting the grain to a fine flour in a single pass than my 16" stones.

[21incher]

My wife wants something she can use for grains now so I just ordered her a Mockmill 200 stone mill that sits on the counter.  Only grinds 200 grams a minute but that should be good for her baking needs. Made in Germany and hopefully it works good with no dust or messy cleaning. Doesn't look like it's good for flint corn or popcorn but should do everything else. I took free shipping so probably going to take a couple weeks. We are hooked on the flavors of fresh ground grains.

[beenthere]

Interesting mill, and look forward to hearing your results. 

Found:
Mockmill 200 Grain Mill review | Grain grinder for homemade flour - YouTube

[21incher]

It looks like a nice small mill my wife can use. Not rated for running more then a couple loaves worth of flour without a break but uses stones supposedly for less heat. My wife needs more flour  to play with but started my cataract surgeries and the doctor said no lifting over 30 pounds for a month after each one so I can't drag the monster out at over 100 pounds for 2 months. Decided a little brother that can run in the house would be good for her to play with.  We can drag the big one out when the kids want a batch. There are better ones but I didn't want to spend over $400 so with a coupon I found it fit the budget.  Watched some videos and everyone seemed to like it. 

[SwampDonkey]

Here's a manual mill to have a look at, made in USA.

https://www.countrylivinggrainmills.com

Operating the Country Living Grain Mill - YouTube

Installing Corn & Bean Auger in Country Living Grain Mill - YouTube

[21incher]

That's not a stone mill. Don't want another plate mill plus my wife couldn't crank it. The Mockmill is made in Germany and has excellent reviews.  

[21incher]

Just found a local dealer to buy corn and grains from about 40 miles away. 
https://www.senecagrainandbean.com/shop
Going to try and get down there next week to buy a couple hundred pounds of corn and grains.
Certified Organic Wapsie Valley Corn sounds interesting.  I think it may be a Mennonite or Amish organization because of no phone and Pen Yan has a big community of Amish.

[SwampDonkey]

Not sure a stone mill that size has enough mass for the job. But if she can't crank a manual mill, then it's not contender to start with. Personally, that would have been my first purchase for all the flour and cornmeal I'd ever use. It's Been around for a long time.

[21incher]

Don, question for you. I see some people that grind cornmeal,  polenta,  and grits from that Wapsie Valley Corn roast it before grinding  for supposedly better flavors. Wondering if you have ever tried that and noticed a difference. 

Not sure a stone mill that size has enough mass for the job. But if she can't crank a manual mill, then it's not contender to start with. Personally, that would have been my first purchase for all the flour and cornmeal I'd ever use. It's Been around for a long time.

Surprised you don't have one already with your interest in a healthy lifestyle.  I am looking for an old hand crank corn shucker next for when I eventually try growing the corn. 
From what I have watched that little stone mill works good but the small stones do generate some heat unlike big stone mills and they are very easy to clean if glazed just grinding some rice coarse.  

[Don P]

I have not. Ground parched corn. Sounds like an interesting experiment, do you have a time/temp that they are using? You've oxidized and cooked it, small batch immediate use I imagine. Try some and if it works I can try a few lbs at the end of a run. Looking at Seneca's website, I think they are just dedicated farmer foodies. The cleaning operation is impressive. Mainly I'm picking out cob tips and a few buckwheat grains, their optical cleaner is getting that. I'm jealous of your resource!

This morning's experiment was 2 batches of cornbread with the same recipe. One is abused meal, the other fresh frozen. The abused was fresh frozen, thawed out at the farmers market 2 weeks ago and then thrown in my wife's lunchbox and I discovered it in a hot box in her car a day or 2 later. I took it to Atlanta and back in a cooler having never opened it, then set it out on the counter for another week. I think I can taste a less fragrant/fresh taste but it is not stale or off yet.  I'm kind of experimenting to find the freshness limits. I need a blind tasting, I knew which was which. I sent bagged fresh to the market this morning and need to take some over for a friend at the shale pit and a bag to the machine shop

Just talked to chef Jen, she made some with just cornmeal and just buttermilk (no blend as in my recipe above) for a no wheat friend and said it was good. Her suggestion is 1 tsp baking powder per cup of meal/flour and a light amount of soda, which is about where I'm at but I'll try some with a bit less leavening, I do taste it and would rather not if I can get the loft. She has also used it as breading and said it worked well. One miller says he thinks a good bit of the wheat allergies we see now are really poison allergies.

Oh, I stopped using Pam, that was one of my off flavors, I noticed it in the mini muffins and then my taste always found it, butter the pan.

[SwampDonkey]

Surprised you don't have one already with your interest in a healthy lifestyle.  

That's because I can get it locally stone ground. :D  Red Fife wheat, spelt, and Kamut flours, and buckwheat flour. Their corn is ground for cereal, but if you cook it first like cereal you can make cornbread just fine. Those with intolerances to wheat find they can eat and enjoy Red Fife Flour. 

Red fife was brought to Canada from Scotland over 170 years ago.

[21incher]

That's what I thought.  They have awesome cleaning equipment.  That corn I bought on Amazon even had organic pebbles in it  . Tried to find information about roasting the corn but all I could find some guy in Africa roasting it in an open pan over a gas burner. Kind of burned the outside some. From what  I could find it gives the flour a nutty flavor and modifies the corn starch to give give the flour a longer shelf life after grinding. I will try some as it appears to change the flavor.  It seems to be a good way for people without refrigeration to store the flour longer.