Very Important!

Selecting the appropriate grain mill is crucial for efficiently meeting your home milling requirements. This guide provides important information to help you find the perfect grinder based on the amount of flour you need daily.

Understanding European Motor Limitations

It’s important to know that every grain mill designed for domestic use and built in Europe features a motor with an operating time legally regulated within Europe. This standard operating time is typically around 15 minutes per cycle.

Within this timeframe:

Only mills equipped with special motors designed for continuous operation (mostly found in commercial units) can grind for longer periods without needing a break.

Key Advice for Selecting Your Mill

Our recommendation: Choose a mill capable of grinding your typical flour requirement in a single 15-minute cycle.

Pro Tip: If you have specific baking days requiring significantly more flour, consider grinding half the needed amount the day before to manage the volume within the mill’s operating limits.

Factors Affecting Grinding Output

The exact amount of flour a mill can produce in one cycle depends on several factors:

Fineness Setting: The finer you set the grind, the less flour the mill processes per minute and per cycle.
Grain Hardness: Harder grains take longer to grind, resulting in less flour output per minute and per cycle compared to softer grains.
Conversely, a coarser grind setting and softer grains will yield more flour per minute and per cycle.

Understanding Grain Types

Note: If grinding hard grains frequently is important for you, pay close attention to the specific model capacities below, as these grains are more challenging for domestic mills.

Mill Specifications and Capacity

The Grain Mill MT 12

Soft Grains: Grinds up to 32 cups / 9 lbs (approx. 4000 grams) of flour in one 15-minute cycle. Requires a minimum break of 2 hours afterward.
Hard Grains: Grinds up to 8 cups / 1.5 lbs (approx. 500 grams) of flour in one 15-minute cycle. Requires a minimum break of 3 hours afterward.

The Grain Mill MT 18

Soft Grains: Grinds up to 60 cups / 18 lbs (approx. 8000 grams) of flour in one 15-minute cycle. Requires a minimum break of 2 hours afterward.
Hard Grains: Grinds up to 12 cups / 3.5 lbs (approx. 1000 grams) of flour in one 15-minute cycle. Requires a minimum break of 3 hours afterward.

By considering these capacities in relation to your daily flour needs and the types of grains you plan to mill, you can make an informed decision and choose the grain mill that best suits your household.

Milling of hard and large grain and longer milling times

e.g. Khorasan; kamut; hard, white and red winter wheat, Corn, soybeans

There are laws of nature that cannot be evaded: Friction generates heat. When milling grain into flour substantial heat development is inevitable too.
The finer you grind and the harder the grains are, the more heat is generated within the grinding chamber.

Rising heat causes moisture content of the grain to evaporate. The resulting moisture is absorbed by the wooden grinding chamber. This beneficial effect regulates the humidity within the grinding chamber naturally. This is positive effect can not be observed with plastic or metal milling chambers, where condensed water might cause clumping of flour residues and molding.

Wood is a bio-material exhibiting swelling and shrinking with a changing water content in the wood structure coupled with a natural climate regulation effect.
Whenever our wooden grinding chamber has absorbed larger quantities of moisture during long milling, it is recommendable to ease and quicken the escape of moisture by opening the grinding chamber for ventilation.

After a proper drying phase depending on the relative air humidity and temperature of the place the funnel can be mounted again to be ready for another healthy and happy use of your Salzburger Grain Mill.

Checking the grinding temperature during the grinding process:

If you are grinding hard grain, check the temperature of the flour every once in a while repeatedly.
Simply catch a hand full of freshly milling flour from the outlet and close the full hand to a fist.
As long as it feels very warm but is not yet uncomfortably hot, everything is perfect. If it is barely possible to close your hand into a fist, please give your mill a rest to cool down a little.
Remove the upper part (funnel with thread) and ventilate the grinding chamber.

Why do we use grinding chambers made of wood and instead of plastic?

There are 2 reasons for this: We avoid abrasion from plastic and hinder mold growth.

Wood is a natural material. In our milling chamber made of natural und untreated wood, the grain can only cause minimal abrasion over many years with a guarantee of no microplastic in your food.
Wood absorbs moisture and releases it in turn.
Plastic cannot absorb moisture.
Try it yourself and store moist food in plastic. Observe the change in consistency and taste. You will also notice mold growth within a very short time.
It is therefore comprehensible why bread is always stored in wooden containers or breathable linen bags or paper and not in plastic bags or plastic containers!

Stored naturally, bread stays tasty, fresh and mold-free for much longer! Another proof for our wooden milling chambers to being the better choic

A cool tip:

IMPORTANT!!!

Place the grain in an open container (not in freezer bags or plastic containers) so that no ice film forms on the grain.
Grind the grains immediately, in a deep-frozen state.
Tests have shown that this keeps the flour much cooler during grinding.

Please differentiate between grain storage and cooling:
It is sufficient to put the grain in the freezer MAXIMUM one day before use.

Important Note: Grain Storage vs. Cooling

Please differentiate between long-term grain storage and short-term cooling before milling. It is sufficient to put the grain in the freezer maximum one day before use.

Choosing the right mill: