What do I actually have when I mill whole grain berries?
This is perhaps a question of semantics, but I'm unclear on a couple of items. I have the good fortune to live near the Honeyville Farms store in Rancho Cucamonga, where I'm able to purchase all sorts of whole wheat and rye berries, among other whole grains and seeds. I've also picked up some whole wheat and rye berries from bluebird grain farms, mostly because I was up in Washington and thought it would be novel. They're way too expensive (~$5 per pound!!) to use on a regular basis. I've been using these grains (milled with a Nutrimill) in my breads with great success.
Questions:
1. I primarily grind hard red winter wheat. What is the difference between the flour that I mill and the whole hard red wheat flour (say, KA brand) that I buy at the store? Not asking about age or flavor so much as actual content.
2. Rye. Hammelman describes the various types of rye available to the US consumer, from white to pumpernickel. He describes whole rye as being better than medium rye, but doesn't say anything about what goes into it. He does say that Pumpernickel rye is a coarse meal "made by milling the entire rye berry" and says that it can be substituted for whole rye.
So when I mill whole rye in my Nutrimill with the feed rate knob set around 1 o'clock, what would the flour I produce be? Assuming it's "whole rye" not dark rye, or fine pumpernickel rye, or whatever.
Silly questions, perhaps, but I'll take any answers, even silly ones. Thanks for you help!
Chris
I too have the NutriMill.
The Wheat you have ground is 100% whole wheat flour. I say 100% whole wheat because when you buy flour in the store if it doesn't say 100% whole wheat it may not be. The main difference is our flour is impact milled and most commercial flours are roller or stone milled, with stone milled being the preferred method. In fact I believe roller milling is used more for milling to a white flour and not a whole grain flour but don't quote me there. While the NM does a good job it has little range and I sometimes believe it creates more starch damage than we desire. It also heats the grain quite a bit if you mill a full hopper or more. That said what you have milled is 100% Whole Wheat Flour.
American Rye: Whole/Dark Rye= Whole Rye Flour (what you get when you mill the rye on a finer setting)
Pumpernickel: Coarse Ground Whole Rye (set to coarse makes something of a pumpernickel flour).
Medium Rye: Rye with a portion of the bran removed
White Rye: Rye milled with bran and germ completely removed (when you mill your Rye in the NM you'll notice it actually seperates and those clumps of white are pretty close to white Rye.
I think Hammelman shoots down white rye and not medium rye. In face he uses medium rye quite often.
The NM being an impact mill sort of explodes the berry while a stone grinds the berry. So when using stones there is better separation of the parts of the berry possible allowing the miller to create different extraction flours (% of bran sifted out). Also the stones are large allowing for heavy duty milling with less heat exchange. When you mill coarse on the NM it seems to break the wheat/rye berry and not separate as well making it less ideal for extraction flours. I have found that this to be different with different types of grain though. My best results come with the speed of motor/ feed rate both just shy of full blast (to the left).
Sorry if I've gone too far.
Josh
Great response! I have read about the starch damage to the wheat from the nutrimill, and am not terribly concerned about it...so far even with 80% whole wheat breads, I get a great crumb and crust with the wheat I mill. Maybe it's because it's all very high hydration? Not sure, but I'm totally happy with the results I get from the stuff that the nutrimill kicks out.
Regarding the whole wheat that I can buy in the store...i've read that the part of the wheat kernel that contains a small amount of oil is removed from what you get in the bags of whole wheat flour in the store because it spoils quickly. Is this also already removed from the wheat berries I'm milling? Total noob question I'm sure, but I've been unable to figure this out from my own research.
Except, perhaps a husk. You have all the fats and proteins of a whole grain when you grind that grain yourself.
I am not certain, but I believe that 100% whole wheat that is milled also contains all the fats and proteins, however, first some of the fat is removed from the wheat and it is added back later.
The fats/oils are within the berry and therefor you have all of it. The reason some commercial "whole wheat" flours aren't truly whole wheat is because some is removed which gives the flour better shelf life. And yes the NM does a fine job all in all but it has its downsides. I find as long as you don't overheat and just grind in a single pass the flour is best.
Cheers
Josh
http://www.lequip.com/ftp/documents/760200/TheGrainDisplayKit.pdf
from what I understand, any "whole wheat" you buy in the baking aisle just has some bran added back in.
Legally ( in the US) any flour that is ground from only wheat can be called 100% whole wheat flour. Commercial millers process the bran, germ and endosperm separately and then add back however much they want of the bran and/or germ to make a standardized flour product that they can legally call 100% whole wheat flour. But it's the same product that we make when we mill at home. We're milling the whole wheat berries with nothing added or removed other than the husk. I really doubt that commercial "whole" wheat flours have any significant amount of the germ added back. After all, they wouldn't get the self stability they need if they did. They also age their flour. I generally call my flour home milled flour or wholemeal.