Mockmill Flour Mill Review

Looking to buy a flour mill to start grinding grain at home? Learn the benefits of home flour mills, including a savings breakdown, plus a side-by-side comparison of the Mockmill and Wondermill.

Have you ever wondered what the big fuss was about grinding grains at home?

For a long time, I thought using a grain mill was reserved only for the “super crunchy” people who raised their own cows or had huge acreage-sized gardens.

Then I realized that you didn’t have to be “all in” to the hyper-healthy lifestyle to enjoy homemade bread made from fresh-milled flour!

I can say this – finding a grain mill that’s within your budget AND one that you like is not easy. Years ago, I invested in a budget flour mill, and now I’m sharing my honest review of the Mockmill grain mill to show you how they compare.

MOCKMILL GRAIN MILL REVIEW

There are several grain mills on the market. They come at different price points with different pros and cons and different bells and whistles.

You don’t HAVE to buy a Mockmill. In fact, I’ve already shared how to grind your own grain WITHOUT a grain mill at all.

But I’ve owned two grain mills – two of the handful that are the most popular on the market – and I wanted to share my thoughts, so you had some insight if or when you decided to make the investment yourself.

Before I jump in, let’s get a few of the basics out of the way.

WHY USE A FLOUR MILL?

The most popular reason to use a flour mill is that freshly milled flour is healthier. According to my friend Wardee, flour starts to lose nutrients through oxidation 24 hours after grinding.

Those bags of whole wheat that have been sitting on the store shelf are not going to retain as much of their nutritional value as the flour you grind fresh just before baking.

Aside from nutritional value, I like using a flour mill because it gives me more control over my food in a variety of ways.

• If I run out of flour, I can make more. This includes all-purpose flour, too. (See how to make your own all-purpose flour.)
• I can grind a variety of grains. We’ve been using einkorn exclusively for several months, but I’ve experimented with hard wheat, soft wheat, spelt, and kamut before.
• You can create flour blends for your favorite recipes. You’ll be hard-pressed to find blends of different flours at the store (other than the 50/50 whole wheat / all-purpose blend), but you can make any blend of grains you want when you mill them yourself.
• It tastes really good. I’m not sure if it’s because all the parts of the grain are included, but freshly milled flour just tastes, well, fresher!

Plus, using a grain mill can save you TONS of money!

HOW A GRAIN MILL SAVES YOU MONEY

Let’s use brown rice from Thrive Market as an example.

• Organic sprouted brown rice flour is $5.99 for 24oz at Thrive Market, or $3.99 per pound. You’ll get around 2.5 cups of rice flour per pound.
  • That means you’re paying about $1.60 per cup of rice flour.
• Organic sprouted brown rice is $5.99 for 2 pounds, or $2.99 per pound. You’ll get 2-3 cups of uncooked rice per pound. Let’s say it’s 2.5 cups for math purposes.
  • For every 1 cup of whole grain rice you grind, you get 2 cups of flour.
  • If you grind one pound of whole grain rice (2.5 cups), you get about 5 cups of rice flour.
  • You get twice as much flour if you grind 1lb of brown rice vs buying 1 lb of brown rice flour.
  • And you’re only paying $0.60 per cup when you grind it yourself.

That means you’re SAVING $1.00 per cup of rice flour if you grind it yourself!
The savings really compound over time. If you milled just one pound of rice each week, that means you’d save $130 each year!

Other grains may yield different amounts of flour when ground, but it’s worth running the numbers to see how much you’ll save!

I absolutely LOVE crunching numbers like this, and that’s what I teach members to do in my course Grocery Budget Bootcamp. Enrollment is currently closed, but check out my FREE Fight Inflation Workshop. You’ll get access to three AMAZING video sessions focused on how to save money on food right now, despite rising grocery costs.

HOW DOES A FLOUR MILLING MACHINE WORK?

In my research and experience with grinding my own grains, I’ve come across two types of flour milling machines. The most common for use in a home kitchen are an impact mill and a stone mill.

Impact mill. This grain mill is made up of stainless-steel blades that move incredibly fast, bursting the grains into small pieces as they hit the mill.

The popular NutriMill and the WonderMill that I have tried are the two most common impact mills.

Stone mill. This grain mill has two grooved stones that crack and grind the grain as it moves through the mill.

Two of the most popular stone mills are the Mockmill and KoMo grain mills.

WHICH FLOUR MILL MACHINE IS BEST?

Isn’t that the million-dollar question!!

I personally have owned both a Wondermill (an impact mill) and a Mockmill 100 (a stone mill). Let’s dig into the pros and cons, so I’ll give you my honest opinion based on my experience with both of these flour mill machines.

WONDERMILL: PROS

• A good budget option when you’re first starting out.
• It’s easy to use and it gets the job done.
• Comes with a container to hold the freshly ground flour.

WONDERMILL: CONS

• Loud. Very, very loud. Grinding grains during naptime or after bedtime would not be possible.
• It comes with several parts. The mill + mill lid + canister + canister lid + foam filter for the canister.
• It’s kind of bulky. I think all grain mills are going to be taller than we’d like, simply because it’s the nature of the beast, but because the canister is SEPARATE, it means the entire machine is wide too. It takes up the space of TWO appliances in the pantry.
• Messy. Flour comes out through the foam filter at the top. It comes out through the chute that runs from the mill to the canister. It shakes out from the lid when you open the canister. I never measured, but I’m pretty sure I lost a good bit of money – via lost flour – because of the mill.
• The flour got hot. The freshly ground flour was noticeably hot after being milled, which tells me that it’s immediately losing nutrients and/or going rancid faster because of the heat.

CLEANING THE WONDERMILL WAS DIFFICULT…

• Hard to take apart. This is through a friend, but she told me that something got stuck in her Wondermill, and it was nearly impossible to take apart. Once her husband finally did get it apart and dislodged whatever was stuck, it was nearly impossible to put it back together correctly. It was only a few days old at the time, and pretty much useless after that.
• Hard to clean. The stainless-steel blades heated the flour as it was ground, which made it just a bit moist. This moist flour would then get stuck in the mill and chute every time I milled grain. I tried to clean it out using a new, dry paintbrush, but in some places, you just couldn’t reach. I heard you could mill plain white rice to clean it, but I couldn’t understand how making MORE flour to clean the mill would work.

Needless to say, I had my WonderMill for several years and stuck with it because of our desire to “make do” with what we have. But honestly, it made grinding grain such a chore that I didn’t want to do it anymore!

MOCKMILL 100: PROS

I finally invested in a Mockmill 100 and couldn’t be happier. It’s been the best experience! Let’s look at how the Mockmill 100 contrasts with the WonderMill.

• SO MUCH QUIETER. The kids can watch a movie in the living room just 20 feet away and not have to turn the volume up. This right here is worth the extra money to me.
• Just one piece! The mill is just one piece – nothing extra.
• Extra-long cord. I don’t know why it is, but the cord is just a bit longer than most of my other kitchen appliance cords, and I like it! It gives me flexibility with cooking in the kitchen.
• Slim design. The Mockmill is taller than the Wondermill, but it’s not as wide, so it takes up less room overall. I put it in the same cabinet as my 8-quart Instant Pot, since that’s a semi-tall appliance too.
• The flour doesn’t get as warm. In fact, the flour feels room temperature to the touch.
• Easy to clean. I haven’t had to officially clean the machine yet, because the flour doesn’t get hot and sticky and make a mess. The only “mess” is a little flour left in the chute that hadn’t come out yet. A firm tap on the side of the mill takes care of that!
• Easy to take apart. Thankfully, I haven’t had to do this either, but my same friend whose Wondermill was doomed after a bean got stuck was able to take apart AND put back together the Mockmill in an hour. And it still worked!
• The flour is so fine! It’s hard to explain, but I think the flour from a Mockmill is more fine than the flour from a Wondermill – and I always used Wondermill’s finest setting!

MOCKMILL 100: CONS

• The chute covering could be sturdier. This is really a minor issue, as the chute covering is cosmetic anyway. There is a round hole where the flour comes out, and a rectangle covering that goes over it. The covering could be easily pulled off (hence the many warnings on the machine and instructions to NOT hold the machine by that covering), but doing so wouldn’t affect the integrity of the machine.
• It’s tall. This isn’t an issue for me, because, as I mentioned, I have an 8-quart Instant Pot that isn’t exactly small, so I store the Mockmill in the same cabinet. However, it is a couple of inches taller than the Wondermill and is too tall to fit in my pantry shelves, so storage is something to consider before you buy.

HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT FLOUR MILL

So, now that we’ve looked through some of the options out there for grain mills, honestly, I recommend saving for a quality flour mill. One that is dedicated and designed to mill hard or soft grains into fine flour.

Here in the Crumbs community, we encourage saving money on our grocery budgets and buying things that are affordable.

• Think long-term savings. In the case of a grain mill, we can think about the money saved over a period of a few years by using the grain ground at home instead of store-bought flour.
• Another option is if you can find a refurbished model of either the Wondermill or the Mockmill, or have a friend who doesn’t want her grain mill anymore, go for it! I’ve never been ashamed of buying used or accepting hand-me-downs!
  • But if you choose the Wondermill or even a Nutrimill now, I think you’ll wish you waited for the Mockmill later on.
  • Kind of how some people “settle” for the Nutribullet but wish they had saved up for a Blendtec.
• In the end, it all boils down to your finances and your real food goals. All that matters is that you do the best you can, with what you have!

If I’ve convinced you that a Mockmill is the way to go, you can order your Mockmill grain mill through this link!

FLOUR GRINDER MACHINE FAQS

WHICH GRAIN MILL IS BEST?

So which flour mill is best?

I’d save up for a good, quality grain mill – something that is dedicated and designed to mill hard or soft grains into fine flour. And after my experience with a few different models, I prefer Mockmill above the other brands like Wondermill or Nutrimill.

I’ve also found that Kitchen Aid makes a grain mill attachment, but I have not tried it before so I can’t compare to these other two.