September 13, 2011 - 5:25am
a mill for cracking wheat
Is there a hand mill that will give me true cracked wheat? We ordered one from leamans- but it rolled the oats, didn't crack them. I was looking the corona mill- do these mills work to get true cracked wheat? I am wanting it for cereal and breads. Thanks!
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Ideally, when you mill grain to crack it, you want the mill to be good enough to break each grain into about 3 or 4 pieces of approximatly the same size. The uniformity of the pieces of cracked grain is somewhat more important for bread baking than for hot cereal.
I owned (and used) a Corona mill for about 4 years. I do *not* recommend purchasing it. It mills very unevenly plus is difficult to clean. For more info on the Corona mill, see my post of Nov 2007 here - http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/4823/can-you-get-bread-flour-corona-mill#comment-24350
If you own a blender with a sturdy motor and only want to produce a cup or two of cracked grain at a time, you might try using the blender to produce cracked grain.
If you want to mill grain (wheat, rye, etc) into a flour suitable for bread baking on a routine basis or in any quantity, you'll have to invest in a good quality grain mill. If you're looking for a grain mill that can both crack grain *and* produce a fine flour for bread baking you should expect to pay $400 or more. A good quality manual mill will cost *more* than an electric mill.
If you want to mill *fine* flour *only* (for making bread, pasta, cookies, etc.) and you live the US, take a look at the electric micronizer type mills currently on the market (of which the Nutrimill is the most widely available). Micronizer mills cannot produce cracked grain but do produce a good fine flour. I own a Nutrimill (plus two other grain mills) and I've found the Nutrimill to be a cost effective, easy-to-use option for producing fine flour from grains that home bakers typically use in bread (wheat, rye, spelt, kamut, barley, buckwheat). The Nutrimill will also mill popcorn (for corn flour) though it cannot handle dent/field corn. (Flour milled from popcorn makes excellent corn bread).
There are many home millers on TFL and many reviews of all sorts of grain mills. Use the search box on TFL to explore their collective wisdom.
Thank you for the review of the corona.
I do already own a wondermill for making my flour. Does not however produce cracked wheat. i would consider purchasing a handmill that does both flour and cracked wheat if I knew of one available. Problem is a lot of products claim to produce cracked grain but do not. I will have to give the blender a try- I'm not out much.
Since you own a Wondermill, you already have a mill for fine flour. Seems your interest is really how to produce coarse flour and/or grits.
To get cracked grain - if you own a blender, try it first. You'll have to experiment about how much grain to add at a time and how long to run it. (Don't go buy a blender for this purpose) Let me know the results.
If a blender doesn't work for you, post back to this thread or PM me. Unfortunately, less expensive manual mills on the market are not that useful for the discriminating home miller.
If you wish, feel free to send me a PM with your questions. I'll do my best to answer.
best of luck in your home-milling adventures - SF
I guess I'm looking for a Roller Mill of some sort and not actually a grain mill. i'm gonna try the blender. I'll let you know how it works.
For course cracked grain the Corona is fine. Have used one for many years. It will not however be a good choice for finely milled flour. So if you are looking to simply crack the grain into smaller pieces, say 1/16" to 1/8" which will a part of your overall recipe, or said another way 5-10 pieces per kernel, the Corona is fine. For this purpose it works and is better than a roller mill. I regulary used this to crack grain for beer making using 50 pound sacks of barely.
I have no problem getting good cracked wheat or rye using my Retsel. I loosen the stones until whole grains will fall through, then tighten a twist or two until I get the consistency I want.