newbie miller

Toast

I'm about to buy a mill here in the uk and I can only find one place with stock of a mock mill 100, I think that's right for me,  but they're a lot of money from my frugal budget am I making the right decision of buying a mill at all or that particular model? Or should I try to find a 2nd hand one?

I think after some price point most home mills are good, regardless of model. I've heard good things about the Mockmill 100, so if you can't afford a pricier one, it's a good choice :)
If you can find one second hand, it's just as good if it's not too old, they are sturdy and often have at least 10-12 years warranty. 

If you are a frequent baker, an own mill is a great investment, since you can get the maximum out of the grain.

thanks for that old wooden spoon, I've spent the day looking all over the internet at mills and all sources seem to agree with you that the Mockmill 100 is a good choice so I'm going to go for it. Its really to get away from white flour that I'd like it, so I shan't want white flour. I will have a look around for a 2nd hand one but so far haven't come across one but I'll look more thoroughly before I buy new. I'll report back in a couple of weeks how its gone.

but you would want to be sure you can get whole grain berries at an acceptable price before you jump in.  I don't know where you are, but it can be costly to ship if you cannot find them locally.  Cost is comparable to shipping for equivalent weight in flour.  I mention this because you noted your "frugal budget".  Cost is (always) an object!

OldWoodenSpoon

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My mill & grain arrived yesterday and I have just tucked into my first loaf using the recipe helpfully posted for me above!!! I am delighted with the result, the taste is fantastic and knowing what you're eating, minus the chemical additives etc. I bought the new book on sweet sourdough yesterday by Vanessa Kimbell and she uses a mock mill and I see all her baking is dense, which is good confirmation that mine is ok.

After a while of eating sourdough, I find I like white flour & sugar less and less though I will cook combinations of white flour for loaves I give away.

Thank you sooo much for helping me on my way, I really appreciate your help & it will be my turn to help when I've developed more skill.

Glad you like the taste.  I generally bake a little hotter to get more color in the crust, you might want to try that next time.    Let us know what you think of her book.  I have her first one, but did not order this one.  The reviews on Amazon paint two different pictures of the book. 

Thanks for that Barry, I always put my oven as hot as it will go 220, so I guess I just have to leave it longer. I got the book and I really like it, one of the reviewers isn't so keen on the extreme edge of sourdough, you know, like milling your own grain, using unusual flours, accepting the deep, dark colour and dense grain of wholemeal biscuits, cakes, scones etc. but I really like that. I love the dense close texture of wholemeal sourdough, fruit cakes that barely rise but have no white sugar & flour so the book suits me well. In Totnes, Devon, a really alternative town, a group of hippies, for want of a better term, sold exactly these things in the market and they sold like hot cakes, I drove a long way to get some. But they wouldn't sell in a supermarket or Parisian bakery because they wouldn't appeal to people who are accustomed to refined sugar and white flour. I think that's the difference the first reviewer encountered. Lots of the book is about the health benefits of sourdough and links between mind and gut, I like that too. I've just mixed up my 2nd loaf of 500mg fresh milled flour, 200ml of 100% starter and 350g water and it looks really wet, I added another 70g flour and its still wet. It's just starting its long prove now, do you think that's ok? I have it in my bread diary, so I guess either way I'll learn from it!

Great to hear things are going well.  Yes, I find my best improvement comes from taking detailed notes, and making slight variations, though I don't do it enough.  As to hydration, I think every flour is different, so you just really need to play with different numbers to see what you get.  I did not read each post thoroughly on the baguette community bake  community-bake-baguettes-alfanso   but from skimming through most posters seemed to agree that by making the same recipe over and over, and making slight changes, and keeping good notes  ( of course , the posts they made were good notes themselves ) they all ended up making some pretty nice loaves.