What kind of stone is best to grind grain(wheat, barley, ect)?

Question

I was watching a history show on Tv and I saw that the Vikinings used giant round stones to grind grains for making bread.

I found it very interesting and now I want to try it. Would anyone know any info about what kind of stone is used for this sort of thing?

Answer 1

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 in bulk packages, at Sam's Club, or Costco.  That is TREMENDOUSLY cheaper than buying the stupid little envelopes they sell in the grocery store.

Homemade bread from home ground flour will be very different from anything you are use to.  The bread will be much heavier, and heartier than what you are use to.  Nothing "fluffy" about it.  

We use a stone mill to grind our flour (a good one will not add grit).  Ours is a Magic Mill brand flour mill.  A very, very good brand.  If you are thinking about making two actual round/flat stones and truely grinding like the Vikings did, then I'm going to leave that research up to you.  

I live a very old fashioned life, but I do enjoy some conviences.  A stone mill that works via electricity is one of them.  ~lol~

Start with hard red wheat, and learn to make bread with that first.  After you master how to do that, then start branching into turning other grains and legumes into flours and adding them to breads.

I also highly reccomend you learn to make good soups, and  stews, as these hearty breads go with them so very well!

Another thing about baking, especially with home ground flour is your elivation.  The higher up you are, the harder to bake breads.  I moved from sea level, to 4700 + feet.  I made a lot of hockey pucks for a while.  I basically had to re-learn how to bake things.  

Rapid rise yeast will help if this is a problem for you.  You can buy this in bulk also.

By the way, I highly recomend making some whole wheat bread, crumbling feta cheese (goat cheese) over it, and putting it under the broiler of your stove for a few minutes.  That is something the Vikings would have eaten and it is delicious!  

If you want more information about electric grinders with stones I'll help you with it.

~Garnet

Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Answer 2

limestone..easiest one to carve that will be durable enogh

Answer 3

I think that the old ones were sandstone. I use an all-metal grinder for my grains when I brew beer. I don't need the extra grit.

Answer 4

Have fun

Answer 5

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 the rotating stone turns, it pulls the grain out through the channels and is ground, with the flour falling out the outer edges of the two stones."

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66318615@N0...

http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/pm.php?id=st...

"In Marathi we call it PATA (tombstone) varvaNTA (cylindrical roller)....the south Indian one ( ragda)"  http://www.anothersubcontinent.com/forum...

" number of stone grinders made from red or brown orthoquartzite were also found. "  http://www.dur.ac.uk/penelope.wilson/3j2...

"Before the advent of flour mills, women ground wheat at home, in circular stone grinders called chakkis. Not an easy job, as you can imagine, but good exercise for the waist!

As a matter of fact, there's a yoga posture called Chakki Chalana Asana (Turning the Mill). It is specially effective for women - it tones the pelvis and waist, helps relieve lower back pain, and is recommended as an effective pre-natal and post-natal practice."  http://mumbai-magic.blogspot.com/2006_10...

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0190-35...

http://www.primitiveways.com/#anchor6965...

"Invention of the saddle-stone grinder. The first step toward modern milling was taken when the saddle-stone grinder was invented. This was used by the ancient Greeks, Romans, Swiss, and Egyptians. China and other Asiatic countries also ground their wheat with this device and it is even now in use in some parts of the world. The natives in certain regions of Africa resort to the same methods of grinding their meal as were in use in the time of Abraham. The saddle stone consisted of two stones, the upper of which fitted into the hollowed top of the lower. The wheat or other grain to be ground was put into the hollow of the bottom stone and the upper stone was rocked backward and forward until the grain was reduced to a coarse meal. "  http://www.oldandsold.com/articles07/foo...

http://books.google.com/books?id=3OmxeVI...

Answer 6

egyptologist found that the ancient egyptian had their teeth easily destroyed due to the bread they eat, and those were grounded by hard stone millers that include bits of tiny stones, sands, grits to the flour.