Why Whole Wheat is Way Better

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Power Source

Manual Mills. For the energetic, athletic, disciplined person, a manual mill (particularly the large flywheel type) can be a superb choice, with a low chance of nutrient-damaging heat buildup. But most manual mills require work, so be realistic — if there’s no flour, there can be no bread.

Electric Mills. If the primary objective is getting the flour ground and the bread on the table without any fuss, frills or fanfare, then an electric mill’s primary drawback — loss of use during power outages — may be acceptably rare. The zippiest, cleanest, easiest mills in this category are relatively inexpensive, and they do one heck of a job, then go back in the cupboard.

Convertible Mills. Many mill manufacturers have devised ways to make their mills convertible from manual to electric or vice versa, so grinding continues with or without power. It is important to select a convertible mill that works properly in either mode because some don’t.

Milling Mechanisms

Each grain mill has some mechanism for crushing, beating or grinding grain into meal, usually in a range of textures from coarse to fine. Some mechanisms are more versatile than others: They grind hard, soft, oily or wet items. Aside from the increasingly popular “oat roller,” two milling mechanisms dominate the home mill market: burr and impact.

Burr mills are the most common. They have two grinding plates, one fixed and the other rotated by a power source. The grain is fed into a gap between the burrs, which are grooved to aid the shearing and crushing of the grain. Composite stone burrs are constructed by pressing natural or artificial stones (and sometimes metal cutting blades) in a bed of cement. Metal burrs/plates, some of which are flat and some cone-shaped, are constructed of hardened cast steel or other metal. Basically, stone burrs tend to crush the grain, and metal burrs tend to break and shear it.

“Impact mills” employ two flat stainless steel heads with concentric rows of “teeth” that spin within each other at high speeds. Grain drops into the mechanism and is hammered, rather than ground, into flour. These very fast, efficient electric-only mills handle most dry, non-oily grains, but can only produce fine, not coarse, flours.

Heat Buildup

Heat is generated when grains are crushed between burrs or slammed around by metal pins. As milling time or speed increase, heat increases, which raises the risk of damage to nutrients and gluten. But when does heat buildup become a problem? Here’s what scientists either suspect or have documented:

112 to 115 degrees. Heat-sensitive vitamins may begin to deteriorate, and the baking quality of gluten could be at risk of deterioration. This would be the upper limit for the super-safe miller.

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