What kind of stone is best to grind grain(wheat, barley, ect)?
Limestone is very soft. It therefore does not grind well at all. It wears down very easily. Granites and other hard stones were usually used, though much more labour intensive to create. They relied on the skill of the carver to cleave the stone along fracture points to achieve the desired shape and grooves. Many are still used around the world; in India, and Central and South America, often made to the same specs as thier antique counterparts. What works doesn’t change. Here’s some modern and ancient examples, some available for purchase, and some descriptions thereof. http://waltonfeed.com/self/grinder.html “Stone grinders have two circular grinding stones. One stone turns against a stationary stone. Grooves are cut, radiating out from the center of the stone. These grooves diminish until they disappear towards the outer edges. When grain is ground, it falls through a channel into the center of the two stones. As th
I store wheat, and grind my wheat from grain, make the flour, and bake all of our bread from scratch. I use Hard Red Winter Wheat. Hard Red has been used for hundred, possibly even thousands of years, and has a really long track record as an excelent long term storage wheat. The Hard Red I’m currently using was stored by my Mother-In-Law back in the 1970’s. When you open the containers, it still smells wonderful, and clean. Of course our families have practicied food storage for years, and know how to do it correctly. Baking bread from flour you have ground yourself is nothing like baking with store bought flour. Entirely different. Truely it is an art form all to itself. The books/recipes you will find on baking bread are really not geared for home ground flour. It contains MUCH more gluten (which makes it much healthier). It makes it a lot harder to get a loaf of bread to rise properly. I usually end up adding about half again as much yeast as the recipes call for. You can buy yeast
