Spice Grinders

One of the best features of the Mil-Rite Grain and Seed Mill is that you can install either stone or steel grinders on it depending on what you wish to grind. Stone grinders work well with wheat, rice, barley, oats, buckwheat, maize, quinoa, or spelt. Small nuts, berries, field corn, and soybeans, however, could plug the stones. These are better handled with stainless steel grinders.

The grinding mechanism of this mill is slow-turning. This produces flake-type flour in contrast to the chunks or even dust-like flour produced by high-speed mills. Also because of this, it does not generate heat which can negatively impact on the flour, and minimizes if not eliminates vibration, noise, and flour dust.

The grinding plates are designed to loosen up and disengage if the machine runs out of mill to process. This means that you fill the hopper, leave it for any reason, and not worry about damaging the grinders.

Milling consistency is adjustable with the turn of a knob from coarse cereal to fine flour. A cup to one-and-half cups of fine flour is produced in approximately one minute. Coarse grounds come much faster.

The standard stainless steel hopper that comes with the unit can accommodate three quarts, although other sizes are available from Mil-Rite.

In the event of power outages, or in remote locations with not electric power, you can still use the Mil-Rite Grain and Seed Mill with a manual crank with a powder-coated steel handle.

The mill is 16 inches high, 11 inches wide, and 12 inches deep. It has a shipping weight of 37 pounds.

Hawo’s Novum Grain Mill is made of plastic which could be white, beige, yellow, or a combination of gray and black. This cylindrical grinder stands approximately 380 mm and has a diameter of 200 mm. A grain discharge outlet protrudes from the grinder’s body and ends with a spout that is about 160 mm from the base. This gives ample room for a bowl to catch the grounds. Above this is an adjustment lever with a round handle for the consistency of the grounds, from coarse through fine to superfine.

Inside this plastic casing is the hopper with a capacity of 600 grams. It pours grains into a milling chamber that is made of food light plastic. Hawo’s Novum uses 100-mm diameter corundum ceramic stone grinders. These do not generate heat when doing their job and therefore do not damage the grains. Grinding is quiet at a 72-decibel noise level, just about the level of normal human conversation, thanks to an elastic bedding in its mill work setting.

A 360-watt industrial-grade motor spins the grinding stones with facility. With this kind of power, it can grind 350 grams of coarse grounds in a minute, 125 grams if you want them fine, and about 100 for superfine.

The millstones of the Schinitzer Pico Electric Flour Mill are made of corundum coated in ceramic that are exceptionally hard and completely inert. These are self-sharpening stones that can grind dry grain or seeds as small as millets or as big as corns. With the use of an adjustment lever you can choose to have fine flour, coarse ground, or cracked grain. It can also grind oily seeds either on their own, in which case you are limited to medium and coarse grounds, or mixed with wheat or rye in a 1:1 ratio if you want them fine.

Among the other grains that the Pico Electric Flour Mill can process are spelt, barley, rice, oats, chickpeas, quinoa, and yeast flakes. Spices, on the other hand, include among others, fennel, coriander, pepper corn, mustard seed, black cumin, and cardamon. It can even be used to grind coffee beans. This makes the Pico a truly versatile equipment.

The millstones grind grain and spices in a food-grade hygienic plastic chamber that is tough enough to withstand daily use. A small 250-watt industrial grade motor rotates the 70 mm millstones to produce from 100 g of fine flour or 200 g of coarse grounds per minute. Cleaning is easy as you only need to remove the hopper and the top cover to reveal the stones. You then simply lift the upper stone from its seating.

The millstones, chamber, and motor are encased either in beech or maple wood housing that is coated with linseed oil for protection. The Pico is rectangular with a width of 160 mm and depth of 240 mm. It has a height of 320 mm. At the top is the hopper which could either be made of wood with a capacity of 650 g, or of metal with a capacity of 850 g.

With a birch ply housing finished in linseed oil varnish and its simple straight lines, Hawo’s Easy Grain Mill is an elegant-looking addition to your kitchen counter or work table. With its wood finish it is particularly suited to kitchens with wooden tables and cabinets.

Inside this housing is a 2.8-inch diameter millstone of corundum ceramic stone. This is horizontally set and powered by a 360-watt motor. With this power the motor effortlessly runs even with a hopper full of corn. It can produce 3.5 ounces of fine flour or 10.6 ounces of coarse grain in about a minute of grinding of wheat, oats, corn, rice, rye, or other grains.

The motor is protected by a bipolar switch and a starter fuse that protect against power surges. To prevent overheating, it is equipped with a temperature management system.

The hopper capacity is 1.2 pounds, sufficient for a family of up to four persons. The milling chamber is made of food light plastic. The grinder rests on an elastic bedding which means that milling is quiet with a minimum of vibration. Indeed, the noise level emitted by the Easy Grain Mill is a low 70 dB.

With a width and depth of only six inches, this mill does not occupy a large piece of your counter or worktable. You can leave it there as additional décor. It is 13 inches in height with a spout for the grounds. Under this you can put a bowl with a maximum height of 4.7 inches to catch the falling flour.

The Easy Grain Mill weighs in at approximately 17.5 pounds.

The best features of the Samap Electric Stone Mill F100 are its patented cooling turbine, natural grinding stones, and industrial rated motor. These features, working together in tandem, make the F100 an efficient, sturdy, and powerful grain mill. Indeed, it is strong enough for continuous use in bakeries and restaurants.

The cooling turbine forces a stream of air through the housing up to the grinding chamber. The air goes on to carry the flour out of the chamber through the flour/air deflector. The flour remains in an attached bottle container while the air escapes through a dust filter. This system assures that neither the grinding stones nor the flour gets hot even after hours of continuous milling. This preserves the nutrients in the flour. It also eliminates the need for reduction gears that are prone to wear and tear.

The grinding stones are made of naxos/basalt embedded in magnesite. These are extremely hard stones that do not need periodic sharpening.

The stones are activated by a 1-hp, 700-watt industrial motor that is capable of continuous operation. It is provided with an overload circuit-breaker for protection in the event that the mill should jam due to wrong adjustments or damp grain.

The Samap Electric Stone Mill F100 processes dry and hard grains quickly, at 200 – 400 grams a minute at a fine setting, but it is not intended to mill oily grains. It can grind spelt, rye, oats, quinoa, millet, wheat, maize, rice, buckwheat and barley. An adjustment knob can be set to grind super fine or very coarse grounds. The hopper features an adjustable feeding speed allowing you to slow it down if you need to multitask, or speed it up if dinner is fast approaching.

The Golden Grain Deluxe Grain Mill is a beautifully crafted kitchen tool that is finished in either walnut or maple. This finish complements its American bi-centennial design. The hopper is a box that sits atop a drawer where the grounds fall into. The grinding mechanism and the motor are concealed at the back of the box.

The grinding heads are self-cleaning stones with stainless steel cutting edges. These razor-sharp steel burrs crack the grains that are then passed to the stone for grinding into fine flour. As grains are cracked by the burrs before they are ground by the stone, grit is eliminated. Also, the stones are spared from excessive wear resulting to a longer-lasting mill.

The inside of the drawer into which the grounds are collected is made of stainless steel. This makes cleaning convenient and quick. An added advantage of the closed drawer receptacle is that the flour is not blown away, keeping your table or counter clean. What is more important, though, is that oxidation is minimized thereby retaining most of the grains’ nutrients.

A ¾ horsepower motor drives the grinding gears and enables them to process up to 60 pounds of flour in one hour. You can feed rye, wheat, oats, barley, millet, corn, rice, soybeans, buckwheat, or alfalfa into the hopper. The Golden Grain Deluxe will gobble them all and give you fine flour or coarse cereal. You only need to slide a lever at the back of the motor to adjust the consistency. A simple on/off switch will get the motor running.

If electric power is out, you can attach a handle to the mill and crank it up manually. This is an optional purchase but it is always a good idea to be prepared for power interruptions. You don’t want to miss your freshly ground fine flour.

The Family Grain Mill is a set of different components that include a grain mill, flaker mill, vegetable processor, and meat grinder. These are be powered either by a motorized Bosch or a hand-cranked base. You can purchase only those components that you need, but if you purchase the whole set, you can have them at a discounted price.

This German-made mill uses high-carbon conical steel burrs for its milling heads. While steel blades can generate friction when milling and thus burn some of the grains’ nutrients, steel burrs do not produce heat. Also, they do not glaze, gum, or add grit to your grounds as some stone burrs tend to do.

When used with the Bosch motorized base, the Family Grain Mill can process one cup of fine flour in 1½ minutes. The hand-powered base, with its 10-inched chrome handle, will take a little longer at two minutes. You can grind wheat, corn meal, oats, rye, barley, rice, flax, millet, sesame, or buckwheat with this mill. If you wish merely to crack grains, you can do so by re-setting an adjustment dial. This dial has infinite settings in between superfine and cracked grain so you can get just the right consistency you want.

The mill’s housing is a white, high-impact, premium Lexan polycarbonate. This tough plastic protects the mill and guarantees dependability and durability for extended periods. The hopper is a large white plastic bowl with a capacity of five cups that is supported by a tube leading into the grinding chamber.

While the motorized base can stand on its own, the hand-cranked version has to be clamped on a table or counter edge. The supplied clamp can fit into a table or countertop of up to 2 1/8 inches thick.

The term “German engineering” has always been associated with precision and durability. Regardless of whether this is true for all German products, it certainly applies in the case of the handcrafted Hawo’s Octagon Grain Mill.

This mill uses natural corundum stone mixed with special ceramic for its grinders. This combination is a potent protection against wearing and chipping. Corundum, scoring 9.0 in Mohs scale of mineral hardness and second only to diamonds, can be expected to last a lifetime of continuous and frequent milling. Because the grinders are of stone, the grains are not subjected to heat as is common with stainless steel blades.

These stones are powered by a sturdy 360-watt motor that is capable of transforming 125 grams of grains such as wheat, oats, corn, or rice into fine flour per minute; 351 grams if you prefer coarse grounds. A lever just above the spout allows you to choose among coarse, fine, and superfine grounds.

Hawo’s Octagon Grain Mill features a large round hopper that has a capacity of approximately 1.1 kilograms. This eliminates the need to continually refill it when processing huge amounts of flour. The hopper funnels towards a milling chamber constructed of food grade plastic. The mill work bedding is elastic thus resulting in a quieter milling. The noise level is pegged at less than 68 dB.

The rounded mill is encased in beech ply or birch which gives it an elegant look suited to any kitchen décor motif, from classical to contemporary. At a height of 410 mm and a diameter of 200 mm, it is just about the size of other brands of grinders. It weighs about 8.8 kg.

Freshly milled whole grains are far nutritionally superior to commercially available white flour. The latter, in order to prolong their shelf life, are stripped of wheat germ oil where most of the nutritional value is contained. Home mills, therefore, are fast becoming a standard kitchen appliance in most homes.

Among the several home grain mills available in the market is the L’Equip Vital Mill Grain Mill. This mill grinds practically all non-oily grains such as wheat, spelt, rye, millet, corn, beans, rice, quinoa, and oats. This is quickly accomplished with its high speed stainless steel milling heads which are fitted with ultra-impact teeth. In a mere 3.5 minutes, 12 cups of wheat is transformed into 20 cups of nutritious fine flour. It has, however, a single fineness setting.

The hopper, with its extension, is large enough to contain 20 cups of grains. It is also provided with a lid to keep dust off the grains. The milling chamber is self-cleaning thus minimizing maintenance. Its free-flow air design also helps keep the mill’s motor from overheating.

The L’Equip Vital Mill Grain Mill comes in white plastic with easy grip handles. These help when moving the mill from storage to the work table and back again.

Nutritionists have been extolling the virtues of home-made flour over commercial types available from groceries for quite a while. This has resulted in a steady increase in the number of home cooks who are buying their own grain mills, whether electric or hand-cranked, and switching to the healthier and more nutritious home-ground grain without preservatives and chemicals.

If you are one of those who want to make the switch but cannot decide which type of electric grain mill you want, consider the affordable Miracle Electric Grain and Flour Mill. It is very easy to assemble and use. Once set up atop your countertop or work table, all you need to do is pour your grains into the hopper, turn the knob below it to choose the degree of fineness you want from 16 grinding settings, and push the switch. In a minute, you can have your first cup of flour. Or course if you want more, you can keep on grinding. In one hour you will have 10 pounds. If you prefer a coarser grind, you can have them even sooner.

Another great thing about this mill is that it can handle both dry and oily grains and seeds. You can pour oats, rye, soybeans, wheat, rice, linseed, peanuts, spices, herbs, and poppy seeds into the hopper. The Miracle Electric will grind them all with its stainless steel burr grinders. The burrs are powered by a 200-watt geared down motor.

Its white all nylon housing and its brown-tinted transparent hopper make it an attractive addition to your countertop, that, if you have enough room there, you need not keep it inside your kitchen cabinets.