Nutrimill, Wondermill and Wolfgang Mill Demonstration
It’s hard to beat freshly milled whole grain flour when you want to maximize the nutritional value and flavor of your bread. Milling your own grain has other practical advantages as well. The long shelf life of whole grain berries allows you to buy more economically in bulk and reduces the risk of running out of flour when fresh home baked bread can’t wait any longer.
When you’re in the market for a grain mill, there are, of course, numerous models to choose from across a wide price range. We’ve opted to carry a few of the most popular models and compare them in these videos. We hope the videos at least give you a decent feel for what the mills are like.
For more details: Grain Mill Store
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
I just ordered a Wondermill Junior Deluxe as a result of this thread. I hope it gets here soon! I can’t wait to experiment!
Mark:
Thanks for all the input, I really appreciate it, an once I find out when my grain will arrive I will purchase a mill.
Don,
I forgot to mention that typically it takes 2/3 cup of whole grains to make 1 cup of flour. I multiply the cup measurements for flour in recipes by 2/3, use that much grain, and usually come very close to the right amount, though it does vary somewhat for different types of grains.
Mark
Don,
I have the WonderMill, and have been very happy with it for 2+ years. I don’t have any personal experience with the others, but based on Eric’s video comparison, the WonderMill is faster and quieter than the Nutrimill, and those are useful benefits to me (especially when I’m making pancakes in the morning and don’t want to wake up the kids!). The WonderMill is plenty large for me. I often make two loaves of bread at a time, and the WonderMill could easily grind enough flour for four loaves if necessary. The only thing I wish it had is the ability to do a courser grind for making things like cornmeal or cream of wheat. The course grind on the WonderMill is still pretty fine. I don’t know if the Nutrimill can do any better in that regard.
I’m sure you’d like either of those grain mills – they are both very popular. Just pick one and start enjoying freshly milled flour!
Mark:
Thanks for the reply, I am aware of breadbeckers they are in GA and I am in NC so I am not too far from them.
We have a Montana Wheat Co-Op in NC and the prices are good so I have bought a small amount from them for this quarters delivery. Still have to decide which mill to buy, I am leaning towards the Wondermill as I don’t think I will need the larger capacity of the Nutrimill but I think either one would do the job for me. If you have any thoughts on which one is better than the other please let me know, these two mills are in my price range, some of the others aren’t.
Don, the cost of flour is not the driving factor for purchasing a grain mill. In addition to the fantastic flavor of freshly milled flour, it is much more nutritious than store-bought flour. When whole grains are milled, the nutrients immediately begin to oxidize. Within about 72 hours 90% of over 30 nutrients are virtually gone. The health benefits of eating foods made of freshly milled flour are numerous.
One other reason to grind your own — since whole grains can be stored for many years without degrading, you can easily keep a wider variety of grains on hand without any worry of spoilage. I buy my grains in bulk from http://www.breadbeckers.com, and I currently have 14 grains on hand: hard red wheat, hard white wheat, soft white wheat, Durum wheat (for pasta), rye, spelt, Kamut, oats, barley, corn, buckwheat, millet, quinoa, and amaranth. With this collection, I can make a wide variety of baked goods from freshly milled flour. In addition, pancakes and waffles made from freshly milled whole grains will knock your sock off!
So, to me, the main reasons to buy a grain mill are fresh flavor, enhanced nutrition, and endless variety.
Trying to justify the cost of a grain mill and I can see that it’s not cost effective for me as for the price of the mill I can make bread for three years at the cost I am paying for flour.
So please tell me what other advantages there is to grinding my own flour and how much grain is needed for a cup of flour, if I know this I can figure what it will cost me a year to grind my own and make bread figuring the cost of the mill and the cost of grain.
I couldn’t tolerate the sound of my grain mill and a friend suggested ear plugs! I bought inexpensive ones at the drug store and they help so much!
I was so happy to see a review and demonstration of the mills because I’ve been considering buying one. Great job. I’m interseted in the extra nutrional value of freshly ground whole grains. The way the mills heat the flour may decrease the nutients but would’t freezing also decrease some of the nutrients?
Years ago I bought a calendar that depicted a different bread or breads each month. Do you know if such a calendar is published today? If not may I suggest Breadtopia produce one. I’ll take two!
Ephraim
I hope you will be able to share the results of each of the grain mill’s grinding capabilities. I am interested in knowing which grain mill can grind grain to a very fine flour.
Hi Amanda,
That’s my experience too. I’ll post some photos and/or video if I can capture the differences. There is a difference in feel but haven’t noticed a difference in the results of the bread.
I’ve now made more than 30 loaves of no knead bread since summer break began and I’m having a great time. I’m comfortable enough with the basic bread recipe now and am just getting curious about the possibility of milling my own flour – I’m going through the grocery store bags fairly quickly and that gets a little exspensive. Does the hand mill grind the bread fine enough? I’ve been using KA bread flour and and really want to add some healthy grains with out losing the flavor and texture I love with the original recipe but haven’t vertured there yet. What makes flour bread flour compared to all purpose? Thanks for your help and I love learning all I have so far.
This video is great, I am debating between the nutrimill and the wolfgang right now.
Could you cover the range of coarseness from each mill. I’ve heard the impact mills only go from very fine to fine, while the Wolfgang and the hand crank mill can produce anything from very fine to cracked wheat.
It would be great to see pictures/video of flour from each machine’s finest and coarsest settings for comparison.
Also, does the flour feel the same from stone grinding vs. impact milling. Is one more sandy or gritty than the other?
Thank you for this review. For a variety of reasons, I’ve been looking into purchasing a crank-type mill. You made the decision easy. Thanks!
I have 200 pounds of hard spring wheat just waiting to be milled and baked into bread.