Finally decided to pull the trigger and purchase the wildly expensive, but well regarded, Country Living Grain mill. No sooner had I ordered it than the price went up a half hour later. I suppose demand must be high, but geez…it went up something like $70 not long after I ordered it. Fortunately, I beat the increase.
I purchased it because I’m finally at a point in my life where I can afford such things, and also because I’m expanding my cooking repertoire and I’d like to grind my own cornmeal. This, naturally, means I need to start stocking dried corn. I already have a small (<50#) amount of wheat sitting in storage (thank you LDS cannery), but given my enjoyment of things like pasta it makes sense to have the materials to start making it from scratch. Sure, I store flour…and it stores well enough…but not as well or as long as the wheat itself. So…grain mill. I figure between wheat, corn, and rice I’ll be pretty well covered for making things like flour, porridge, polenta, etc.
And, because I’m a suspender-and-a-belt kind of guy I ordered the spare parts kit and a few other accessories as well.
I’m rather looking forward to experimenting. I haven’t baked bread in quite a while and I’m wondering how much of a difference in flavor will be noticed between freshly ground flour and store-bought. There’s a bakery three blocks from where I live and once in a rare while I’ll get some bread there and, dang it, it’s good. So good that just a thick slice of it and some soft, creamy butter is practically a meal all by itself. But, in addition to bread, I also wanna take a swing at making my own fresh pasta and that sort of thing. Also, I’ve found a recipe for a cornmeal porridge that I really, really like and would like to try with fresh cornmeal. So..I guess it was time to spend the money and get the grain mill.
Now I need to head out to the places that sell bulk grains and start seeing whats available. Nice thing is, even without an end-of-the-world it’ll still be nice to have fresh bread and that sort of thing.
I, too, have a grain mill and learned on one of the sites that popcorn makes very good cornmeal. I don’t know if Cosco carries it, but Sam’s has 50# bags that I assume are for theaters and such at a good price. Gray Fox
Good Point, we have popcorn for popcorn in 50 pound bags and know that we can grind it for meal too. Yes we have a mill and that mill also grinds old pinto beans. That if cooked whole never cook all the way soft. Unless you use an prohibitive amount of time energy
we grind into a meal and then we can cook them into perfect refried beans!
Popcorn does make better cornmeal. The farm my company buys yellow popcorn from in 50lb bags sells a semi trailer full of pallets (50 bags per pallet) to a place in Michigan that grinds its own cornmeal every other month. You can’t really beat Sams club price on their 50lb bag popcorn for grinding, but for popping its pretty lower end stuff.
When I was a wee lad, my mother pulled out a bucket of wheat she’d stored 20+ years before, ground it into fine flour with an incredibly loud electric device, then baked it into bread. It tasted dusty, haha. When I told her about it recently, she said she didn’t notice and maybe should have rinsed the wheat first. I believe the bucket was not air tight.
You’re going to like fresh bread, I have to bake three loaves because the first doesn’t get cold before it’s gone.
Have you started a sourdough yet?
I’ve been thinking about grinding some of the 5 grain chicken scratch mix and making a simple bread with it. Only for research as its labeled not for human consumption (wink). I do grow and save seed of painted mountain flint corn and use some for corn meal/flour. It makes a good corn bread. It grinds easy and stores well. I also store wheat. Remember that homemade bread spoils sooner than the store bought full of preservatives.
Didja get the motor with your Suspenders-and-Belt kit? If not, you’ll probably wish you did in pretty short order. It takes a looong time to grind a cup o’wheat by hand. Still a good score though. You will never regret having one.
That’s a great mill CZ. And worth having the backup parts and extra set of grinding plates. I have a CLiving mill from late 1990s that I’ve used for a family of 6 for many years. Wheat, buckwheat for pancakes, barley, corn.
I keep the mill bolted to a poplar board about 1.5 ft x 2.5 ft. When needed, I use two quick clamps to secure it to a little dinette table in our kitchen. When not in use it stores nicely on top of fridge.
I replaced one of the two bearings after about 3 years. I think it was a defective bearing from start, because in about 20 years of use after that, have never had a problem. The little wooden cover they sell for the mill’s grain hopper is handy and keeps dust out. I used to just keep the opening covered with alum foil.
I got a back up CLiving mill when they were selling mills discounted because of cosmetic flaws in the powder coating. They have a nut butter accessory that came out about 3 years ago. Got one, haven’t tried yet.
I used to buy whole wheat flour until the price went up. Then I ordered a good grinder ( better than the Victoria-used to be called Corona, which is a very rough grind ). Beat the “other Corona” by just a few months, when mills went unavailable for a year plus. Before, using store bought, I craved the flour because I was hungry. Now, freshly ground, I find my body craves it like I would fruits or vegetables. So I’m guessing there is something in there that dies shortly after processing. Enzymes? No idea, but I can ever go back to store bought.
You may want to think again about eating “whole” wheat. I’ve read that it didn’t take long to figure out that humans shouldn’t eat the complete kernel? of wheat. I think it was the bran that was thrown away, or maybe fed to other animals. Has a bad effect on the gut. Not everyone will exhibit/notice the side effects, but it will be a problem. Supposedly it was the guy who “invented” breakfast cereal that decided that we should eat the whole wheat, circa 1900. Thousands of years of discarding it, and this clown thinks he knows better.
Technically you can grind the deer feed corn sold at most tractor supply and such however it is very bland and can be a little bitter tasting since its flint corn. Just a fyi.
Dent corn by the dent in the top of the kernel. I’m sure that was just a fat finger event. But we use dent corn already ground from the commercial mill as cat litter…cheapest clumping cat litter you will ever find!
We’ve had one for over 10 years. I just ordered 88oz of durum wheat berries (for the first time) on Amazon to grind our own semolina flour for pasta. We sift our ground wheat to remove some of the bran to make it easier to work. Luck.
Don’t forget to get spare parts.
And yet right in the middle of the post it says “And, because I’m a suspender-and-a-belt kind of guy I ordered the spare parts kit “
The company used to sell blemished mills at a considerable discount. I bought mine 10-15 years ago. As for the blemish, I saw nothing, but it may have a different color than intended. 🤷
Made pasta several years ago,very easy but be warned without a pasta machine it is more difficult (kitchenaid attachment even easier). Have plenty of space to dry it(hanging). Store bought far superior for storage. +1on sourdough,if you plan on making bread get one of the machines.
+1 on the motor. You won’t need the gym for arm work if you regularly grind 3-4 cups of flour for bread by hand.
We got ours about ten years ago and quickie leaned that hand grinding is a net negative calorie experience ( (only a slight joke )
found an old motor and built a double pulley belt drive to reduce the rpm so it won’t overhears the grain . Anyway it’s sure nice .
We mix the ground wheat half and half with store bought because it’s difficult to grind it fine enough to make bread that isn’t “heavy “.
Good luck give us your thoughts after you hand grind a few cups !!
I’ve found that a one-to-one mix of hard red wheat and hard white wheat makes a good bread flour. Hard white wheat alone also makes a good loaf, but only a hard red wheat loaf results in a brittle slice.
I clicked on the link you posted for the Country Living Mill on Amazon. It’s priced at $649 on Amazon, but if you went over to Lehman’s or The Country Living Store, it’s only $529.