Ground Egg Shells
My goal: A workable baking flour, Ground from egg shells
I joined this site and searched for the phrase: "eggshells" in different and various forms.
Couldn't find exactly what I wanted
Moderators, Owners, Group Leaders, please bear with my Zero Level Knowledge and my poor use of your jargon, vernacular and vocabulary. I'm sure it's second nature to you, but I'm brand new to all this stuff.
I have contacted two companies who make milling machines that one could keep in the typical home kitchen.
They told me that I would need to grind the particles down to 80 mesh, But that their machines only do about half that (i.e., about 40)
I think I know what that means but I welcome specific education, correction, and direction just to make sure that I'm using the correct words to convey the concept clearly across the internet.
I welcome advice And instruction on just exactly what I need to do in order to accomplish this.
Oh, a useful question: Is what I'm proposing even possible in the first place ?
What is the purpose of trying to use ground egg shells to make flour? I can’t imagine it would have much flavor or a pleasing texture but I could be wrong. I would try using an inexpensive spice grinder first and see what results you get before trying an actual mill.
Welcome to The Fresh loaf!
After milling the shells, you might be able to achieve a finer grind by using either a high-speed blender, or a mortar and pestle. For what purpose do you wish to use the eggshell flour?
https://www.google.com/search?q=grind+eggshells+into+flourfor+baking&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS676US676&oq=grind+eggshells+into+flourfor+baking&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIJCAEQIRgKGKABMgkIAhAhGAoYqwIyCQgDECEYChirAjIJCAQQIRgKGKsC0gEJMTcyNzJqMGo3qAIAsAIA&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8
Yeah, I don't think I'd consider ground egg shells "flour" no matter how fine you grind it.
Semantics aside, if I wanted to grind egg shells to make a calcium/protein powder that I could add to baking or smoothies or whatever, and I was just experimenting on a small scale, I'd probably pick up a super cheap blade coffee grinder and see if I could make something usable with that.
And, yeah, I'd google for other people trying to do the same thing, not ask bakers.
https://www.google.com/search?q=egg+shell+powder&oq=egg+shell+powder
Blenders and mortar and pestle seem like popular options.
Good luck.
Wash and dry them first then turn into powder. Coffee grinder. The powder is one of the best and oldest oil spot removers for fabric. Keep a small jar around and a tiny one in my travel bag. :) Use dry. Allow time for powder to soak up oil and brush off. Great stuff that.
My only comments on eating egg shells would be...know where they are coming from and handle like they could give you salmonella. Not much different than the safety precautions when handling chicken or eggs. Clean all equipment well and sanitize before using again for foods including countertops trays and sinks. If going into bread dough, this idea classifies as one of the reasons I bake my own bread. I don't lay eggs myself and don't need the additional calcium in my diet. Might even cause some kind of blockage. (Sombody look that up.)
Might try just crushing calcium supplements or adding milk products instead to bread dough. I could send you a liter or two of my tap water. It is high in calcium, very hard water. If the small amount of protein in the skin of egg shells is what you're after, try using the egg white in the eggs instead, it's full of protein. If you're looking to recycle the egg shells, one way is to boil, crush and feed them back to the chickens. They lay eggs.
You could just buy a bag of calcium carbonate powder and try your hand at making bread with some of it.. Don't be surprised if it looks and acts like plaster.
From what I've read, it would be a really good idea to cook the shells in boiling water for some time to kill any unpleasant bacteria. And just a few grams would give you a typical daily requirement, so I wouldn't try to use very much of it in a loaf of bread. On the good side, from papers I read the calcium from shells is supposed to be fairly bio-available, comparable to some common calcium supplement tablets.