What Grain Mill should I get?

[SSDreamin]

I have the Victorio grain mill. I keep it as my back up. It works well, but it takes quite a while to get enough flour for, say, a loaf of bread. I upgraded to a Country Living mill. Much nicer as far as output for input goes. In comparing fineness, I would say they were equal. I like the Country Living because it can easily be converted (to motorized, or run by bike power, due to it's large fly wheel). My only complaint with it is I wish I'd gotten the extension handle thing for it, would make my life much easier! It isn't in the under $100 range though. I would recommend the Victorio mill to anyone wanting something that works well for under $100. My biggest problem with it was fastening it down to my cabinets - I had weird counter tops, and had a big issue with it slipping frequently.

 

[ORChick]

I have the Family Grain Mill, the manual version, but with the optional bit that allows me to use it with my Kitchenaid. I was also hesitant at first, as it seemed that even the "inexpensive" mills all cost rather more than I wished to spend for an "experiment", but I finally bit the bullet, and got the Family Mill. I'm quite happy with it; it grinds from fine to course with no problem; they say not to grind popcorn, but I have no inclination to do that, so that isn't an issue. The freshly ground grain really does taste so much better.

 

[moolie]

We have the Family Grain Mill as well, when we purchased the motorized version, the hand crank base came with it at no charge. We got it from Pleasant Hill Grain. It works very well both motorized and cranked by hand. Baking with fresh ground wheat (and other grains, we have tried oats, barley, rice, dent corn not popcorn, and millet as well as legumes like pinto beans) is wonderful.

There is a bit of a learning curve if you are going for 100% whole grain bread--we've not mastered it yet so we usually add up to one third all purpose flour to most whole wheat recipes. Occasionally I make white bread/buns that are actually 1/2 freshly ground oat flour, my family loves them

 

[baymule]

Wow! Just what i was fixin' to ask!! I have decided to start making not only my own bread, but the whole she-bang, mill the wheat and all. I am very intrested in the comments on this thread and hope lots of people chime in with their experiences. I wnat to buy a mill too. I want an electric mill with option to manual operation that can grind corn too. Thanks ya'll!

 

[k15n1]

I bought a Wonder Mill Junior this spring. I have personally verified that it works for corn, wheat, rice, beans, and peanuts.

The official marketing video is mainly accurate except in speed. It just takes longer when you're grinding flour by hand. I've measured the speed and I get about 400 g in 10 minutes. Now that I'm looking at it again, it looks low and I want to re-measure it. But the point is, speed may be an issue. They do sell a pulley and the mill can be motorized, up to 80 RPM.

From the kitchen notes:

Test of WonderMill Junior grinding time, 22:58 12 May 2012
Started at 22:58 with 492 g. At 23:08, 902 g. Thats 410 g in 10 minutes, or 41 g/min.
155 g equals 1 C, so its 2.6 C for all that. so 0.26 C/min or 3.8 minutes/C

 

[Maschil]

I bought a Wonder Mill Junior this spring. I have personally verified that it works for corn, wheat, rice, beans, and peanuts.

The official marketing video is mainly accurate except in speed. It just takes longer when you're grinding flour by hand. I've measured the speed and I get about 400 g in 10 minutes. Now that I'm looking at it again, it looks low and I want to re-measure it. But the point is, speed may be an issue. They do sell a pulley and the mill can be motorized, up to 80 RPM.

From the kitchen notes:

Test of WonderMill Junior grinding time, 22:58 12 May 2012
Started at 22:58 with 492 g. At 23:08, 902 g. Thats 410 g in 10 minutes, or 41 g/min.
155 g equals 1 C, so its 2.6 C for all that. so 0.26 C/min or 3.8 minutes/C

what was your price for it???

 

[Maschil]

We have the Family Grain Mill as well, when we purchased the motorized version, the hand crank base came with it at no charge. We got it from Pleasant Hill Grain. It works very well both motorized and cranked by hand. Baking with fresh ground wheat (and other grains, we have tried oats, barley, rice, dent corn not popcorn, and millet as well as legumes like pinto beans) is wonderful.

There is a bit of a learning curve if you are going for 100% whole grain bread--we've not mastered it yet so we usually add up to one third all purpose flour to most whole wheat recipes. Occasionally I make white bread/buns that are actually 1/2 freshly ground oat flour, my family loves them

was yours 270 bucks???

 

[moolie]

We have the Family Grain Mill as well, when we purchased the motorized version, the hand crank base came with it at no charge. We got it from Pleasant Hill Grain. It works very well both motorized and cranked by hand. Baking with fresh ground wheat (and other grains, we have tried oats, barley, rice, dent corn not popcorn, and millet as well as legumes like pinto beans) is wonderful.

There is a bit of a learning curve if you are going for 100% whole grain bread--we've not mastered it yet so we usually add up to one third all purpose flour to most whole wheat recipes. Occasionally I make white bread/buns that are actually 1/2 freshly ground oat flour, my family loves them

was yours 270 bucks???

I wanna say it was around $245? when we bought it, maybe it was on sale? It was a couple of years ago. Still going strong, very well-built, we use it every day or two.

 

[mrscoyote]

The Family Grain Mill looks great, but it is more than I want to spend. Maybe I can swing it for a Christmas present. So for now I am still looking and watching for sales.

 

[opiemaster]

There is ALOT of mills for sale on E-BAy. New and used. I am looking also.