by Lois Breneman
A food mill is an excellent investment, if you want to grind your own grain into flour for baking bread. You will never eat any better tasting or more nutritious bread than that made from 100% freshly ground grain! It doesn't compare with using bagged flour from the grocery store or even a health food store!
Wheat germ must be removed from whole wheat flour before being sold in the grocery stores, because the oil in the wheat germ would cause the flour to become rancid with the long shelf life. When you realize that 90% of the nutrition in a wheat berry is in the wheat germ, that is enough motivation for one to mill your own flour to bake bread!
I used to mix half whole wheat flour and half unbleached to make bread, but since milling my own grain, I am able to use only freshly ground flour from whole grains and have a much more nutritious and better tasting end product.
A food mill is an excellent investment, if you want to grind your own grain into flour for baking bread. You will never eat any better tasting or more nutritious bread than that made from 100% freshly ground grain! It doesn't compare with using bagged flour from the grocery store or even a health food store!
Wheat germ must be removed from whole wheat flour before being sold in the grocery stores, because the oil in the wheat germ would cause the flour to become rancid with the long shelf life. When you realize that 90% of the nutrition in a wheat berry is in the wheat germ, that is enough motivation for one to mill your own flour to bake bread!
I used to mix half whole wheat flour and half unbleached to make bread, but since milling my own grain, I am able to use only freshly ground flour from whole grains and have a much more nutritious and better tasting end product.
The main reason I began to grind my own grain years ago was because I learned that after the whole grain (wheat berry) is broken, there is about a 30 % loss of nutrients within just three days. As a result, any unused milled flour needs to be frozen, as well as surplus bread until ready to be used, in order to protect the nutrients. When you consider the missing 90% of nutrition in the wheat germ, plus the remaining 30 % loss after grinding the wheat berry, unless you mill your own flour at home, it is a sad conclusion that you are getting much less nutrition than you ever dreamed.
Dried beans can also be ground in a blender, although a food mill will grind them much finer. Ground beans can be added in making bread or in soups as a thickening agent, after stirring in cold water just as you would make gravy.
Rita Bingham is known as “The Bean Queen” because she likes to sneak beans into just about everything she cooks. They are quick and easy to add and she has cookbooks available on details of how to do that. Just do a search for her to obtain additional information.
Dried beans can also be ground in a blender, although a food mill will grind them much finer. Ground beans can be added in making bread or in soups as a thickening agent, after stirring in cold water just as you would make gravy.
Rita Bingham is known as “The Bean Queen” because she likes to sneak beans into just about everything she cooks. They are quick and easy to add and she has cookbooks available on details of how to do that. Just do a search for her to obtain additional information.
