Iuse my electric grain mill every time I bake anything; I keep unbleached
flour around to dust the bread board and my hands, and to make slight
adjustments when kneading. If I had a hand-powered mill, I wouldn't use it
nearly so often.
I recommend an impact-type mill--I've had a Kitchenetics mill for about 20
years and it only needed service once, while in regular use making flour
for breads, quickbreads, cakes, pastries and cookies. It mills extremely
fine flour, and when I use soft white wheat people don't know that I've
used whole wheat in my cookies or cakes unless I tell them.
I like to mill small amounts of whole spices mixed in with my grains, and
to play with proportions of hard vs soft wheat or rice or oats depending on
the recipe, and this type of mill is easily cleaned between small batches
of flour. The peppery pfefferneuse flour doesn't affect the taste of the
pie crust flour milled right after it.
The only problem with this mill is the noise: I think of it as my baby jet
plane, and when we are ready for takeoff, I put in the ear plugs! I also am
careful about my milling hours to avoid waking the neighbors.
I don' t think it is still made, but I recently tried the Nutrimill my
father bought to replace the Kitchenetics mill he'd given away. In between
he had a smaller mill for a few years but it didn't cut it--it was still
fairly loud, it couldn't make really fine flour, and it was slow. I don't
remember the name or brand of the inadequate mill. The new Nutrimill was
much quieter than my Kitchenetics mill, larger, and maybe a little faster.
I only used it for two batches of flour and was not convinced that its
finest setting matched my Kitchenetics mill (important if you want to use
it for pastries, cakes, cookies, etc). It also had a little trouble using
whole dried corn, because the large kernels had trouble flowing into the
milling chamber (I guess that's why they recommend starting with popcorn,
but I don' t think popcorn-cornmeal has the same baking qualities as
standard field corn).
From the little browsing I've done, the Ultramill looks closer in design
to my Kitchenetics mill, and based on my happiness with the Kitchenetics
mill, that is probably the one I'd get to replace it if and when it ever
dies. But I'd want to hear it first, to see if they've really made it quieter.
Diane Brown in St. Louis
www.well.com/user/debunix