I just acquired my first mill and wondered if there's a good basic book on milling to get me started. I'll continue to read posts as there's a wealth of experience here, but it would be nice to have a reference source at hand. Thanks!
I'll check them out; need to place an Amazon order anyway. My husband does most of the car & RV driving, so I read. Many remote areas we travel through don't have WiFi access for TFL. I'm old enough to prefer books to online when possible. Bought some wheat berries, oat & buckwheat groats at Whole Foods to get me started and just learned we have a couple of brewery shops in Monterey/Carmel. I'll get bulk grains when we go to Utah in a few weeks.
I have three books that have significant emphasis on home milling and one that touches on the subject. The first is The Bread Book by Thom Leonard, with a 1990 Copyright date. It's about 100 pages and a significant part of it reviews various home mills, their pro's and cons and prices. The prices are only 30 years out-of-date; some pro's and cons still apply. It is an interesting read in some aspects and includes recipes along with plans for building your own wood-fired oven and how to grow your own wheat.
Erin Alderson's, The Homemade Flour Book is copyrighted 2014 and covers a very wide range of grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. It's full of recipes, many of them specialized. It does contain useful information about the gram weight of volume measurement of grain and their milled weight. That's very useful if you're wanting to convert recipes of measure to the approximate gram weight of raw grain needing to be milled.
The Essential Home-Ground Flour Book, by Sue Becker is copyrighted 2016 and has two main parts, All About Home-Ground Flours and Recipes Using Home-Ground Flours. She give most of her measurements in the familiar cup-and-tsp-TS format but also includes metric volumes not gram weights. I've found it useful.
The fourth book that touches on the subject is The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book by Laurel Robertson in a revised edition published in 2003. It touches on equipment for home-milling and is an excellent source.
I'd been looking for a gently-used mill to see if I'd like the process. Saturday my husband saw a new Craig's List post for a FREE Mill & Mix, and 2 hours later it was mine. A lovely elderly lady who bought it new when she lived in Salt Lake City (it was invented an hour from there). She no longer bakes and was delighted to pass it on, so I'll take her a loaf of bread ASAP. My daughter moved to SLC last week, so the RV will bring home bulk grain when we visit. Hard to find grain in central CA other than Whole Foods. The motor is a beast, the stones are thick and in great shape. Though not as compact as the new mills, free is great for a heavy-duty appliance to get me started.
I've had the Laurel's Kitchen Bread book for 20? years, but haven't used it for awhile and didn't realize it had any milling info, so thanks for that tip!
If you don't have to have organically grown, non GMO wheat that's been harvested in the dark of the moon by vestal virgins using bronze scythes and can just use plain ol' wheat berries you'll find some deals on Amazon for Prime members and Walmart also sells wheat that they'll deliver to a store near you for pickup. I just bought 104 lbs. of hard red and hard white from those sources for $0.61 a pound delivered all the way to TN. Both products are from Augason Farms which is headquartered in SLC so you could load up the RV and tie a bag or two on top before heading back to CA.
Thanks for the WalMart tip. Only shop there 2-3x a year and have never seen grain in the flour aisle. I'd seen Honeyville products on Amazon last year, but will now look seriously to see what Prime offers; didn't realize some grain shipped free. After seeing everybody's yummy recipes I'm looking for more variety than Whole Foods offers (and I doubt they're the best price, even if with the bulk order discount.
The RV has an extra full-sized bed for hauling goodies to/from family. I can't wait to check out everybody's grain & eating suggestions next trip. Thanks to all for the great tips!
Justanoldguy, what did you think of The Essential Home-Ground Flour book? I searched this site trying to find a book review and struck out. I have seen Becker youtube videos, and was a little disappointed with the recipe she was using, IIRC, she used sugar and fats, which is somewhat contrary to the goal of many who bake 100% whole wheat. I did search the Amazon review, and saw a similar criticism that the recipes included lots of sugars and fats. Does she address sourdough and lean breads in her book at any length?
Barry, yes she uses sugars and fats in almost every recipe. She's a Southerner and she does say you can leave sugar out of the cornbread recipe. There are no sourdough recipes that I've found. She does cover a wide range of grains, legumes and seeds that can be milled and there's quite a few gluten-free recipes. As I noted above she gives volume measurements for the ingredients in both the traditional cups, tsp, TS units as well as their metric volumes. I didn't find any lean doughs. She does give extensive analysis to the nutritional aspects of the flours and ingredients she covers and offers plenty of tips on substitutions.
Thanks for the reply, I think I will pass on her book. I was interested in Sourdough lean home milled, I admit it is a little off the beaten path, but there is always hope I will find something.
I saw the post on TFL several weeks ago, showed it to my husband since he does lots of second-hand shopping, and forwarded it to his 80-year-old mom to ask if she'd heard of the brand. So surprised when this showed up for free on Craig's List, and was 30 minutes away. I was researching it on TFL while he was e-mailing back & forth with the seller. Finally I got something - usually he's hunting for vintage car parts.
Congrats on getting your first mill. I was searching this site just yesterday, and saw recommendations for both Sue Beckers book and the Home made flour book - though I haven't read either of them. http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/50448/book-about-grinding-whole-grains
This is the search result from Amazon https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_n_0?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Ahome+milling+flour&keywords=home+milling+flour&ie=UTF8&qid=1524049313&r…; You might want to search each of the titles on google and check the reviews. BTW, this forum is a great resource, though I agree a book format can be easier to jump into than a series of posts..
I'll check them out; need to place an Amazon order anyway. My husband does most of the car & RV driving, so I read. Many remote areas we travel through don't have WiFi access for TFL. I'm old enough to prefer books to online when possible. Bought some wheat berries, oat & buckwheat groats at Whole Foods to get me started and just learned we have a couple of brewery shops in Monterey/Carmel. I'll get bulk grains when we go to Utah in a few weeks.
I have three books that have significant emphasis on home milling and one that touches on the subject. The first is The Bread Book by Thom Leonard, with a 1990 Copyright date. It's about 100 pages and a significant part of it reviews various home mills, their pro's and cons and prices. The prices are only 30 years out-of-date; some pro's and cons still apply. It is an interesting read in some aspects and includes recipes along with plans for building your own wood-fired oven and how to grow your own wheat.
Erin Alderson's, The Homemade Flour Book is copyrighted 2014 and covers a very wide range of grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. It's full of recipes, many of them specialized. It does contain useful information about the gram weight of volume measurement of grain and their milled weight. That's very useful if you're wanting to convert recipes of measure to the approximate gram weight of raw grain needing to be milled.
The Essential Home-Ground Flour Book, by Sue Becker is copyrighted 2016 and has two main parts, All About Home-Ground Flours and Recipes Using Home-Ground Flours. She give most of her measurements in the familiar cup-and-tsp-TS format but also includes metric volumes not gram weights. I've found it useful.
The fourth book that touches on the subject is The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book by Laurel Robertson in a revised edition published in 2003. It touches on equipment for home-milling and is an excellent source.
What mill did you acquire?
I'd been looking for a gently-used mill to see if I'd like the process. Saturday my husband saw a new Craig's List post for a FREE Mill & Mix, and 2 hours later it was mine. A lovely elderly lady who bought it new when she lived in Salt Lake City (it was invented an hour from there). She no longer bakes and was delighted to pass it on, so I'll take her a loaf of bread ASAP. My daughter moved to SLC last week, so the RV will bring home bulk grain when we visit. Hard to find grain in central CA other than Whole Foods. The motor is a beast, the stones are thick and in great shape. Though not as compact as the new mills, free is great for a heavy-duty appliance to get me started.
I've had the Laurel's Kitchen Bread book for 20? years, but haven't used it for awhile and didn't realize it had any milling info, so thanks for that tip!
If you don't have to have organically grown, non GMO wheat that's been harvested in the dark of the moon by vestal virgins using bronze scythes and can just use plain ol' wheat berries you'll find some deals on Amazon for Prime members and Walmart also sells wheat that they'll deliver to a store near you for pickup. I just bought 104 lbs. of hard red and hard white from those sources for $0.61 a pound delivered all the way to TN. Both products are from Augason Farms which is headquartered in SLC so you could load up the RV and tie a bag or two on top before heading back to CA.
Thanks for the WalMart tip. Only shop there 2-3x a year and have never seen grain in the flour aisle. I'd seen Honeyville products on Amazon last year, but will now look seriously to see what Prime offers; didn't realize some grain shipped free. After seeing everybody's yummy recipes I'm looking for more variety than Whole Foods offers (and I doubt they're the best price, even if with the bulk order discount.
The RV has an extra full-sized bed for hauling goodies to/from family. I can't wait to check out everybody's grain & eating suggestions next trip. Thanks to all for the great tips!
Justanoldguy, what did you think of The Essential Home-Ground Flour book? I searched this site trying to find a book review and struck out. I have seen Becker youtube videos, and was a little disappointed with the recipe she was using, IIRC, she used sugar and fats, which is somewhat contrary to the goal of many who bake 100% whole wheat. I did search the Amazon review, and saw a similar criticism that the recipes included lots of sugars and fats. Does she address sourdough and lean breads in her book at any length?
Barry, yes she uses sugars and fats in almost every recipe. She's a Southerner and she does say you can leave sugar out of the cornbread recipe. There are no sourdough recipes that I've found. She does cover a wide range of grains, legumes and seeds that can be milled and there's quite a few gluten-free recipes. As I noted above she gives volume measurements for the ingredients in both the traditional cups, tsp, TS units as well as their metric volumes. I didn't find any lean doughs. She does give extensive analysis to the nutritional aspects of the flours and ingredients she covers and offers plenty of tips on substitutions.
Thanks for the reply, I think I will pass on her book. I was interested in Sourdough lean home milled, I admit it is a little off the beaten path, but there is always hope I will find something.
Monty, I have been looking into, and buying, mills for many years and never heard of a mix and mill. Until a few weeks ago, and now I have heard about two of them in just a few weeks, what a coincidence http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/55800/vintage-mill-mix-grain-mill-and-mixer-combo
I saw the post on TFL several weeks ago, showed it to my husband since he does lots of second-hand shopping, and forwarded it to his 80-year-old mom to ask if she'd heard of the brand. So surprised when this showed up for free on Craig's List, and was 30 minutes away. I was researching it on TFL while he was e-mailing back & forth with the seller. Finally I got something - usually he's hunting for vintage car parts.