Problems milling rye berries
Hi, fellow breadies.
I'm new to the forum, so apologies if this subject has been treated elsewhere.
I have a Mockmill 100 which I bought to mill rye berries. (I bake a lot of wholegrain sourdough rye bread.)
The rye berries inevitably gunk up the mill and prevent it from working. I have to disassemble it and clean out the blockages by hand multiple times in a session in order to get enough flour for just a single loaf of bread.
The Mockmill instructions mention that the rye berries should crack when pressed, instead of squishing down and looking like a rolled out. Mine do the latter, and I'm guessing that this is a likely source of the problem. ?
Has anyone out there experienced anything similar? Is it just that I need to buy drier rye (and, if so, any ideas where I might find that)? Is it that I just need to grind on a much courser setting? (I really like the fine, powdery flour that comes from the finer settings, but don't know what difference this makes in the final loaf.) Is it normal to have to put the rye berries into the oven for a bit before milling, just to take out some of the moisture?
Any thoughts or suggestions welcome.
you have the mill running before you add the rye berries. I have the MM 100 and use the finest setting. The only time i have had triuble with gunking of grain was when i filled the hopper and thrn turned on the mill. I called for advice at Breadtopia and they cautioned me on running mill first. You might call Breadtopia and talk to thrm. Excellent service
I have a Komo, and the instructions are that the machine should always be running before any grain is added. I've never had any problem as you describe, and I've used many different grains.
Thanks so much. I called Breadtopia, too (got the mill from them and they are wonderful!), and got the same advice. I always start the mill first but the problem happens despite this. I'm thinking now that it's the grain--that it's just too moist. Thanks for your feedback.
I also have a Mockmill but not the stand-alone type. I seem to recall a note in the instruction manual that cautioned against milling rye that was less than 6 months from harvest. The instructions cautioned against milling any grain that was too moist and the crush test would determine in a 'seat-of-the-pants' way that the moisture level was appropriately low for milling. The fact that your rye berries flatten instead of cracking indicates that there is a high moisture content in the grain. If it's high enough the mill will be making dough instead of flour and that might be the problem. When I mill rye in my mill I notice that there is a higher accumulation of residual flour on the stones compared to the wheat that I mill and I grind them both on the closest setting for the stones. If that's a general tendency of rye then a high moisture content will only compound the problem. If you have a way to dry the berries before milling without heating them much above 100f it would be worth trying to see if that addresses your problem. As for buying drier rye I can't help - I have a hard enough time just finding rye at a reasonable price after the shipping is added.
Thanks! That "making dough" concept sounds right, based on what I see in the mill when I disassemble it when it gets stuck. It's not really dough, but it's very warm and thick powder. I think the grain I bought must have been too fresh? I've just found a place that says their rye is harvested in July and so the current rye they're selling is a year old and isn't cleaned with water--sounds perfect. (I think?) But I agree with you about the shipping. I like milling at home for the taste/freshness, but was hoping to also save some money on the rye--only to find out that the very high shipping costs take away any cost savings...
If Amazon Prime is available to you they sometimes have rye berries and you'll get 'free' shipping. If you're in the US and the right region you might want to take a look at Country Life Natural Foods. The have rye and a fixed shipping rate for the region they serve. I haven't bought from them yet so I can't testify to the quality of their products. However, they seem friendly enough on the phone and I'm preparing to order from them. If you have a food dehydrator that has adjustable temperature settings it should work fine for drying your rye to an acceptable moisture content for milling. In answer to your other question I haven't tried using coarse rye or wheat. I do mill corn fairly coarse if I'm making cornbread or polenta (actually I live in the South so I'm really making grits - just putting on airs if I call it polenta).
One more question while I'm here: milling on a much coarser setting seems to help, though I haven't tried pushing things by milling for too long on that setting. (Maybe it would gunk things up, too, just a bit later?) But I'm wondering what that does to the final loaf. Have you/anyone noticed big differences in the final wholegrain loaf when the flour you've milled is either coarser or finer? Probably an obvious question to people in the know, but I'm still new to all of this. Thanks again.
Thanks for this. I do think that might have been the issue--I could squish the other rye berries and this does not seem like a good thing at all. Meanwhile, I've found a place in Montana that ships organic rye berries without being too costly and these new--and definitely drier--berries have been working perfectly in the Mockmill. :) I don't know how this site feels about posting the names of vendors, or would just state the company's name.
haven’t had this problem with rye at all. Do you mill other grains for the same bread? you could try milling a mix of grains and see if it helps. alternatively dry the grain in your oven on low heat perhaps (as you would if you sprouted grain).
the only grain that blocked my mill was kamut and I ended up feeding it through very slowly.
Leslie
sourdough rye girl, first, there are no obvious questions when it comes to bread, and even less so when you wander into the corner where the home millers reside, since there is very little published concerning home milled flour. As to the coarse setting, I haven't milled much rye, but lots of red and white hard wheat. When you make a loaf with coarse ground wheat, the loaves come out a little coarser texture. On some mills, you can run the berries through on coarse, then run the flour through a second time on a finer setting to get a finer flour . I agree that the sticking you are getting is due to the condition of the berries, and if you don't like the texture of the bread with a coarse setting, you might want to try to run the coarse ground flour through a second time, As a final, completely unsupported suggestion, have you tried putting the rye berries in a dehydrator at a very low temp for several hours? It could be they picked up some moisture some where along the way.
Thanks for this, Barry. It's reassuring to know that there really isn't enough info. out there, somehow. (I.e. it's not that my research skills are faltering ;) .) I ended up making a loaf with some very coarse rye flour, unsifted, and really it tasted fine, too. It seems that sourdough rye is very forgiving. Will be interesting to experiment a little bit with different textures all the same, though.
I have a Mockmill 200 which is not significantly different from your machine, and have yet to experience the symptoms you are experiencing. I suspect that the berries might be the culprit. My rye comes from a mill near me, Camas Country Mill near Eugene, Oregon. https://www.camascountrymill.com
I am sure that you should have access to a similar provider, but be sure that they can tell you what the moisture content of the grain is if you continue to have a problem.
Regards,
Captain Foulweather