I finally bought a Mockmill after years of using impact mill
I've been using an old Magic Mill III impact mill for 30 year and it's been a love/hate thing for all those years. I hate the dentist drill sound of the high RPM motor whining and the flour dust everywhere. It's always been really noisy and messy but the flour has been great. Now I've finally bought a mockmill 100. I was tempted to get the 200 but I don't grind large quantities at all and they claimed the grind quality was the same.
So my first impressions were amazement at how quick and clean and quietly the Mockmill grinds my wheat into flour. No mess and I have the grinder right in my kitchen where the impact mill always had to live in a room I didn't mind getting coated in flour dust or outside the house even.
Next I ran the flour thru my #40 and #60 screens (too large of a jump - I have a #50 on order). The Mockmill grind is more even but not as fine as the impact mill. With the impact mill I was getting a lot of super fine flour that would go right thru the #60 and a lot of larger stuff, besides the bran, that wouldn't go thru the #40 and needed a second pass thru the grinder.
I'll know more when I get my #50 screen (I suspect I'll get more flour that goes thru the #50 but doesn't pass the #60 from the Mockmill, and that may be just what I want) -- but what I'm seeing right now is that in order to get the same very fine flour I was able to get from the impact mill, I have to run the MockMill with the stones rubbing against each other. I'm not sure if that's OK to do or not - with grain in it, it sounds fine but I have to turn it off the second the last kernel of grain goes thru as it sounds awful. I've seen two different "how to" for the Mockmill and one talked about setting it to where the stones just barely touch and then backing off - but it also then mentioned you can go even closer but didn't elaborate. So I'm not sure if I'm going to end up with grit in my flour or ruin the stones by running them that close for short periods (not long enough to get hot - I only use 100-200 grams at a time).
I make pasta frequently and I buy both the Bob's Red Mill Semolina (very coarse) and the Caputo Semola Rimacinata flour. The Caputo flour passes easily thru the #60 screen. So I tried running the Bob's Red Mill thru the MockMill and had to really get the stones rubbing before I could get it to pass thru the #60 but I was able to do it (and made delicious pasta with it, didn't see or feel any grit). Hope someone can comment on whether I'm safe to run the stones that tight. I do notice that the stones start to plug up when grinding that fine and I have to brush them or clean them with a coarse grind.
Curious to hear what others have to say after using both types of mills. And maybe this is useful to someone trying to decide which type of mill to buy.
is to start up the Mockmill with the stones almost touching, just a bit of a tinkling noise.
Then fill the hopper with the grain and immediately push the adjustment lever towards a finer grind until I meet resistance.
When the hopper is just about empty, I coarsen the grind and finish off.
A bit of a kludge, but that's the best you can do with this design of mill at this price point.
On the plus side, I think it allows for better separation of the bran (#40) and germ (#50) than a hammer mill.
Lance
I've got no experience with impact mills and my Mockmill is the type that attaches as an accessory to my KA mixer. I don't know if it would work with the Mockmill 100 but with mine I fill the hopper with the stones at a fairly open setting. This allows some of the grain to fall between the stones. Then I crank the adjustment down and start the mill. I think that once grain has entered the space between the stones it effectively cushions them from self abrasion. My stones are in a vertical orientation; yours would be horizontal and I have no idea how that would influence the entry of berries with the mill not running.
My Mockmill 100 documentation emphasizes to always start the mill with the hopper empty. Starting it with grain in the hopper jams it.
Here is a nice video on calibrating the Mockmill 100 and 200: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYH8_XcUPgE
Happy milling! -Jessica
I love my MockMill2. I recently tinkered with the stones and started grinding the flour finer. The last 2 bakes I ground it courser, sifted with a #40 and then reground the flour at the finer setting. I had great results this way.
Enjoy your new mill.
I have the Mockmill 100 and use it as recommended with the stones set to the ticking sound. I was expecting a finer grind and less grit and thought maybe something was wrong. I have the same sifters that remove 5% of the bran with the #40 and about 15% with the #60. I seem to recall that milling a second pass wasn't recommended in the owners manual. I had read that the finer flour is better but didn't want to risk damaging the mill.
I use the milled flour with white flour in the 25% range and sometimes half is fresh milled. Since I have owned it for over year I have not used whole wheat from the store so I can't compare, but the bread I make is better and I don't worry about the fineness of the flour anymore. I also read on this site that the sifting helps aerate and thus oxygenate the fresh flour.
Have you noticed a difference in baking qualities of the less fine flour?
I save the bran that is sifted out and mix in some water to make dough balls that my backyard chickens seem to love.
It just so happened that one of my sifters fit inside this Cambro bucket and is a nice dust free way to process the flour.
Love that idea! Mine are too big. There is no issues with remilling the flour. I usually do this for rye and whole wheat and find it is worth while.
Andy, I can understand your quandary. I've been baking homemade whole wheat (Khorasan) sandwich bread for nearly 34 years. I've used a K-Tec Kitchen Mill for well over 20 years. Recently, I've been using a Nutrimill.
NOTE ABOUT NUTRIMILL: To avoid having flour fly everywhere, don't over fill the flour catch bucket. To make my 4 large loaves, I have to mill half the grain needed, then empty the catch bucket, then finish grinding the rest. No more flour flying everywhere. Also, a large tea towel can be draped over the mill, making sure not to cover the vent slits in the lid, for added protection.
I waited 6 months for a Komo Mio mill. It's beautiful to look at, grinds lovely steel cut oats and cornmeal, but not flour fine enough for sandwich bread. It does do free form rustic bread ok. I can't tell you how disappointed I have been with this mill. I too, have tried different ways of grinding grain to get a finer flour. If I turn the hopper too far to the left the burrs just stop turning, necessitating an immediate turn-off of the machine. It only grinds grain so fine and that's it. Baking bread with this flour causes the texture of my bread to be coarser, requiring the slices to be cut much wider in order to keep the slice from falling apart so easily. This is in addition to using vital wheat gluten flour in my recipe.
With the impact mills, my bread holds together, cut thinly for a delicious sandwich. All without doing any sifting! If a second grind or sifting in needed with a burr mill, then no time is saved by using these machines.
I've earned many blue ribbons at fairs with my bread, with a Best of Show at my State Fair several years back. I can't achieve the level of fineness and satisfaction with the Komo Mio as I can with the Nutrimill Classic or K-Tec Kitchen Mill. This makes me sad, but it is a fact.
Oh well. I think I'll go hug my Nutrimill!
Blessings, KittyJ