No, this isn’t about ground beef. This is about flour. Last year I became intrigued by grain mills, what a great idea, so thought I. That lasted until sticker shock set in. The whole idea was put on hold as “nice idea, too expensive.” You can literally spend hundreds upon hundreds of dollars for a grain mill, some are quite attractive to look at, but still, they’re expensive pieces of kitchen equipment. Trolling through Amazon taught me there are a great variety out there, some do a better job apparently than others, but at the end of the day, unless you buy one and try it, you don’t really know how it will work or whether it will fit your needs. Our needs were basic, just something to grind whole-wheat flour or whatever strikes my fancy. I don’t see myself as a daily grinder, but many do. Who knows, with enough passion, it could happen!

Victorio Grain Mill, side view.  Photo by Sue Van Slooten — Victorio Grain Mill, side view. Photo by Sue Van Slooten

In a recent trolling trip through Amazon, I came across a Victorio grain mill, and I checked it out, as I already own their food mill, and love it. It was under $100, so with a click of the mouse, said mill, along with some bags of Bob’s Red Mill whole grains, were on their way. Upon its arrival, it got put to immediate use. Alas, my butcher block table was too thick for the clamp, but the workbench in the garage was perfect. You won’t want to connect this to anything fancy, like your dining room table. Serious force will be applied. I had ordered a bag of hard red spring wheat berries to make whole-wheat flour, so in went two cups, and I started turning the crank. You will get a very nice upper body workout, which I consider a side benefit. With a bowl underneath to catch the flour as it came out, soon enough, we had flour. It took about ten minutes to create three cups flour, and that is the normal yield according to a book I got on grinding (more about that in the next blog!).

The next step was to bake something, in this case I chose banana bread. If you have never tasted a baked item made with freshly ground flour, you are in for a real treat. The taste is totally different-fresher, tastier, more what you would expect a baked good should taste like. You just do not get that experience with commercially ground flours and baked products, especially whole-wheat. Many of the commercial ones taste strong, dry and bitter in comparison. For those reasons alone, whole-wheat flour was never popular in our house.

Victorio Grain MillPhoto by Sue Van Slooten

So what are some of things you need to look at when purchasing a grain mill? Certainly cost is a factor, but obviously not the only one. To motorize or not to motorize? Mine is not, but often times you can order a motor to go on it afterward if you wish. Check the model you’re interested in to make sure it can be upgraded. The other thing to consider about motors is if it’s manual, it will always work. If you’re off the grid, it’s obvious, but if you have thirty-hour power outages like we do here, you might want to keep that in mind too. It never hurts to be prepared. You can still make stuff on your camp stove in that situation!

Another thing to consider is speed. Some grind faster than others. Mine is considered a “slow” one, but I thought three cups in ten minutes pretty adequate. Now if you are baking for a family of six, you might feel differently. Or....get the kids to do it! Mills also grind in different ways: Burr grinders, steel, stone.

What you can grind is also important. Mine for example won’t do large grains like corn, so if cornmeal is what you want, you will have to buy something bigger. Be aware that you are limited by what can fit through the hopper. Small grains like wheat berries are what mine is designed for. It can handle buckwheat, teff, rice and the like. Oats are not recommended because they are too light to flow through the hopper. You need to watch that the grinding cones don’t overheat if there isn’t enough material being processed through them, hence the problem with oats. Perhaps a bigger mill would handle oats with no problem. Or, you could run oatmeal flakes through a food processor or blender if you want oat flour.

As you can see, there are a lot of factors that go into the decision to get a grain mill: What you intend to bake/make, size of your family, how often you intend to use it, lots of considerations. I can guarantee one thing though: If you purchase one and try the flour in your baked goodies, you will be won over by the taste

Important Notes:

Bob’s Red Mill. www.bobsredmill.com Bob’s carries a dizzying array of whole grains. They often have your harder to find items and more unusual flours, etc. Last accessed May 11, 2016.

Victorio. www.Victorio.info You can check out all their products here. They have sprouters, canners, dehydrators, etc. Last accessed May 11, 2016

If you wish, you can email me at suevanslooten@icloud.com. I’d be thrilled to hear from you!

Cooking Tips for the New Year

The New Year has come, and January itself is about gone. I think it is appropriate then that I offer some tips to make your cooking and baking life easier in future. A lot of times in life, it isn’t always the expensive gadget or appliance, it’s often the little things that really count. Every cook has a repertoire of tricks and techniques, as I’m sure you all do. Perhaps you’d like to share a few with your fellow readers, and if so, I can post them via a future, or next, blog. Just drop me a line at suevanslooten@ripnet.com, and I’ll be happy to take a look at them. They will also get posted on my website at www.svanslooten.com. We can all learn something from each other that way. So, let’s get cooking on this.

1. Parchment paper-Not just a fancy waxed paper. Parchment can be worth its weight almost in gold when it comes to baking. I always use it to line cake pans, sweet breads, etc. Also, with fussy cookies, or sticky ones like macaroons, it is indispensible. It will really save you a lot of headaches when it comes to turning out your favourite product. It’s also useful for cooking fish packets and goodies like that. Plus, as it is greaseproof, if it isn’t too soiled, you can reuse it. It also tends to not burn as easily as paper would.

2. Instant read thermometer. In baking, it is very handy indeed to know if your product is done. The instant read will tell you at about 190 F., you bread is basically done. In candy making, well, don’t attempt it without one. I’ve done it, but....the results were good, I just find the thermometer takes the guess work out of it. Ditto for any kind of cheese or yogurt making.

3. Dough whisk-heck, you could do a whole blog on this one. We even gave one away a couple of years ago. It is wire crazy loops mounted on a handle. The only place I know where you can get one is King Arthur Flour, and it’s worth going all out for the big one. If you want to make bread, this is the device to have. Even for just mixing dry ingredients together it’s great, but when it comes to mixing a loose, still ragged bread dough, you will wonder how you managed to survive all these years without one.

4. Olive oil. Use this instead of vegetable oil in your bread and cake recipes. If you use the light tasting stuff, you will never know that pumpkin bread or brownies, or zucchini bread was made with olive oil. I just made an applesauce cake with it-delicious! In fact, I think it tastes even better. You then don’t have to rely on commercially made vegetable oils, which are garnering question marks about their quality and integrity. Besides, millions of Romans, Greeks, and their modern day counterparts, can’t be wrong.

5. Jar Key. This is one of those little gadgets that really will make life easier, as when you get a particularly stubborn pickle jar, jam jar, or what have you. Many a time I have struggled to turn the lid, to no avail. Enter the Jar Key (see red item in photo). Hook it on, lift it up, and the vacuum seal breaks. Now you can open your jar.

6. Spray Oils. This may seem like an obvious one, but I’m sure someone is still struggling to grease fancy shaped pans, etc. I keep two varieties on hand, maybe three. The first is an all purpose canola oil type. The second is the baking type, which has flour in it, particularly useful for baking. The third, although I don’t usually keep it on hand, is olive oil. They do work really well, and are a true convenience. The one caveat I have is, don’t breathe the fumes, and I question what’s really in the propellant, namely isobutane and propane. This is particularly true with the baking one with flour. Improperly used, you can have a real flamethrower on your hands.

7. Kitchen torch. Speaking of flame throwers, this one is more fun than anything else, but if you really do want to caramelize that brown sugar on your crème brulee, this is the tool. They’re really just mini versions of the standard propane torch, only they usually take butane as their fuel. Note to parents: High school age boys find these fascinating. (Hint to the wise: Don’t use the standard torch, you won’t have much left.)

8. Butter. Is better. We all know about the dangers of trans-fats in margarine by now, so without sounding like a broken record, don’t use it. It also just doesn’t work well in cookies, cakes, and generally not at all in pies. If you want to get grossed out by one of industrial foods more questionable products, read the history on this one. You’ll never touch the stuff again. Shortening is also questionable for the same reason, but there is an alternative if you don’t want to go the butter route, and that’s the trans-fat free stuff. It is a vegan product that works very well. It is generally much more expensive however, but, if you feel it’s worth it, go for it. I’m thinking of pies here, so you could also go the lard route. Or, 50/50 butter and shortening works very well too.

9. And last but not least: Time. Trying to cook or bake in a rush is not only very stressful, but can often times lead to disaster. No on wants to be like Marge Simpson when she’s late for the bake sale.

You can drop Sue a line at suevanslooten@ripnet.com, she’d love to hear from you.

Some interesting cooking tools.  Photo by Sue Van Slooten — Some interesting cooking tools. Photo by Sue Van Slooten