Choosing the right grinder:
What is your daily flour requirement? Choosing the right flour mill is crucial to efficiently meeting your flour needs at home. This guide contains important information to help you find the perfect grinder for your daily flour needs.
How much flour can the mill grind in one pass?
The Grain Mill MT 12
- Soft grains (e.g. wheat, rye, spelt, barley, einkorn, buckwheat, oats:grinds up to 4000 grams of flour A break of at least 2-3 hours is then required.
- Hard grains (e.g. kamut, khorasan, hard red winter wheat, hard white winter wheat, maize,:grinds up to 500 grams of flour A break of at least 2-3 hours is then required.
- Grain in the freezer compartment (overnight):grinds up to 500 grams of flour A break of at least 2-3 hours is then required.
The Grain Mill MT 18
-
Soft grains (e.g. wheat, rye, spelt, barley, einkorn, buckwheat, oats:
grinds up to 8000 grams of flour
A break of at least 2-3 hours is then required. -
Hard grains (e.g. kamut, khorasan, hard red winter wheat, hard white winter wheat, maize,:
grinds up to 1000 grams of flour
A break of at least 2-3 hours is then required. -
Grain in the freezer compartment (overnight):
grinds up to 2000 grams of flour
A break of at least 2-3 hours is then required.
Choose a grinder that can grind your daily flour requirements in a single pass.
Professional tip: If you need significantly more flour on certain baking days, you should grind half of the required amount the day before to keep the amount within the mill’s operating limits.
By considering these capacities in relation to your daily flour requirements and the types of grain you want to grind, you can make an informed decision and choose the grain mill that best suits your household.
A cool tip:
- Place the grain to be ground in the freezer (freezer compartment) to ensure the lowest possible starting temperature for the upcoming grinding process.
- This is particularly recommended for khorasan, kamut or all types of durum wheat.
IMPORTANT!!!
Place the grain in an open container (not in freezer bags or plastic containers) so that no ice film forms on the grain.
- Grind the grains immediately, in a deep-frozen state.
- Tests have shown that this keeps the flour much cooler during grinding.
Please differentiate between grain storage and cooling:
It is sufficient to put the grain in the freezer MAXIMUM one day before use.
Factors that influence grinding performance
The exact amount of flour that a mill can produce in one cycle depends on several factors:
- Fineness setting: The finer you set the grinding degree, the less flour the grinder processes per minute and per cycle.
- Grain hardness: Grinding takes longer with harder grains, which results in a lower quantity of flour per minute and per cycle than with softer grains.
- Conversely, a coarser grinding setting and softer grains produce more flour per minute and per cycle.
Understanding Grain Types
- Soft Grains Examples include: Wheat, Rye, Spelt, Barley, Einkorn, Buckwheat, Oats.
- Hard Grains Examples include: Kamut, Khorasan, Hard Red Winter Wheat, Hard White Winter Wheat, Maize (Corn).
Note: If grinding hard grains frequently is important for you, pay close attention to the specific model capacities below, as these grains are more challenging for domestic mills.
Grinding of hard and large grains
Khorasan, kamut, hard red and white winter wheat, maize, soybeans
There are laws of nature that cannot be circumvented: Friction generates heat. Considerable heat is also unavoidable when grinding grain into flour.
The finer you grind and the harder the grains are, the more heat is generated in the grinding chamber.
The rising heat causes the moisture content of the grain to evaporate. The resulting moisture is absorbed by the wooden grinding chamber. This positive effect regulates the humidity in the grinding chamber in a natural way. This positive effect cannot be observed with grinding chambers made of plastic or metal, where condensation can lead to clumping of the flour residues.
Wood is a biomaterial that swells and shrinks with changing water content in the wood structure, which goes hand in hand with natural climate regulation.
Whenever our wooden grinding chamber has absorbed large amounts of moisture during prolonged grinding, it is advisable to facilitate and accelerate the escape of moisture by opening the grinding chamber for ventilation.
After an appropriate drying phase, which depends on the relative humidity and temperature of the place, the hopper can be reassembled to be ready for another healthy and happy use of your Salzburg grain mill.
Control of the flour temperature during the grinding process:
- If you grind hard grain, you should check the temperature of the flour repeatedly from time to time.
- Simply take a handful of freshly ground flour from the spout and close your full hand into a fist.
- As long as it feels very warm but is not yet uncomfortably hot, everything is perfect. If it is barely possible to close your hand into a fist, please allow your grinder to cool down a little.
- Remove the upper part (funnel with thread) and ventilate the grinding chamber.
Why do we use grinding chambers made of wood and not plastic?
There are 2 reasons for this: We avoid the abrasion of plastics and prevent the formation of mold.
Wood is a natural material. In our grinding chamber made of natural and untreated wood, the grain can cause only minimal abrasion over many years, so you are guaranteed not to find any microplastics in your food.
Wood absorbs moisture and releases it again.Plastic cannot absorb moisture.
Try it out for yourself and store moist food in plastic. Observe the change in consistency and taste. You will also notice mold growth within a very short time.
It is therefore understandable why bread is always stored in wooden containers or breathable linen bags or paper and not in plastic bags or plastic containers!
Stored in a natural way, the bread stays tasty, fresh and mold-free for much longer! Further proof that our wooden grinding chambers are the better choice.