Here's a (almost complete) report on the grain grinder I bought
After looking at the expensive! alternatives frequently offered on y2k web sites, I decided on a Corona grain mill. I spent about $45 for it -- and ordered from a home-brewing web site. There quite a few good brewing sites, and the prices on mills are far far far better than most y2k site prices; and they all seem to be in stock -- mine came in about 5 days.
It's the "standard" home grinder in Mexico, I've read. It's heavy: cast iron and built, I'd guess, to last for decades. It grinds with steel plates (I've read that steel can "heat up" grain/flour, but at the speed you'll grind by hand, that'll never happen, trust me.)
So I put it together, which is easy, thank goodness, because there's only a diagram of how it goes together, and all but a few words of the accompanying small brochure are in Spanish!
Attached it to a counter, tossed in some wheat berries and started to turn the crank. You tighten or loosen a large screw in front to grind more or less fine (by moving the grinding plates). I read somewhere that the way to do it is to grind the wheat about four times, tightening the screw as you make each pass.
I ground mine about 6 times before it was "floury" enough for my un-trained eye. (though I've baked bread for years, and enjoy it!)
Not too hard, kinda fun, certainly interesting. It's easy to see how you could merely "crack" grains for cereal, etc. By the way, it's called a "corn mill" on the box, which probably speaks to Mexican consumers; I'll be trying tortillas "from scratch" one of these days...I'm sure it'll make great corn meal.
I then tossed my hand-made flour into my bread-maker. I'm curious to see if I ground fine enough for the bread to rise using the "standard" whole wheat bread recipie for the bread maker. If it doesn't rise enough, I'm sure that making bread sans machine and letting it rise longer should do the trick.
To sum up: I like it! And I don't feel like I've been ripped off by paying $400+ and waiting 1,000 weeks for delivery.
I've also read that bread made with freshly ground flour not only has more nutrition (naturally...) but also tastes wonderful! Hope to find that out in...about...four hours :-)
doug |
