How Crabble Mill makes flour

Some simple recipes for scones & soda bread

What the customers wanted Crabble Corn Mill is a restored, working Georgian watermill that uses water power to break up and crush wheat grain to make flour. When it worked as a business during the 19th century, its customers wanted WHITE flour to bake white bread. So it not only had MILLSTONES to crush the grain, but also SIEVING MACHINES to remove all the "brown bits" that customers didn't want. Sacks of grain were hoist up into the Mill, and emptied into the DIRTY GRAIN BIN.

A GRAIN CLEANER machine blew air through the grain to remove dust and mould. The clean grain was then fed down a pipe to the MILLSTONES. It is crushed into tiny fragments, and comes out as wholemeal flour - which is sieved to separate the WHITE FLOUR which is bagged ready for sale.

	The wheat grain This diagram shows the THREE parts of the wheat grain: The ENDOSPERM is the white floury filling inside the grain The GERM is the baby plant, that would sprout leaves and roots if it were planted in the ground. The endosperm is a store of food for the growing plant, until it's able to draw on food from outside. The BRAN is the tough outer skin that protects the grain while its in the soil. When the millstones crush the grain, the BRAN breaks into flakes mixed in with the white flour from the ENDOSPERM. The oily WHEATGERM tends to stick the whole lot together.
This mixture is WHOLEMEAL FLOUR - it had to be passed through giant SIEVING MACHINES to try and separate the white flour from the rest. Only the fine white white flour would fall through the sieve. At Crabble, they sieved it through fine silk cloth - but even that didn't work well enough to produce really white flour. It was very slow (which was why they needed TWO big machines), and still some germ tended to stick the flour to the bran. Back to top
Power for the Mill Every thing in the Mill dates back to its original working period, from 1812 to 1893 - it is all powered by the waterwheel. Today you can see the waterwheel turn as the millers demonstrate how the Mill makes stoneground flour.

The gearing The waterwheel turns at about 6 revs a minute. It is fixed to the PIT WHEEL, which turns the WALLOWER, another gear wheel which turns the VERTICAL SHAFT- see diagram. Also fixed on the vertical shaft is the GREAT SPUR WHEEL. This is much bigger than the Wallower, so the five small STONE NUTS around it turn round quite fast. The result of this "gearing up" is that the small stone nuts (which are fixed to the millstones) turn at 120 revs a minute - an ideal speed for 4 foot diameter millstones when grinding wheat. The vertical shaft which runs up from the wallower drives all the machinery in the upper part of the Mill, through a series of belts and gear wheels
Follow a quick floor-by-floor tour of the Mill machinery
Wholemeal Flour Crabble Corn Mill is able to produce stoneground wholemeal flour. Its qualities depend on the grain used: It will be organic if the Mill is scrupulous in using 100% organic wheat grain. It will be better for bread making (and work well in bread-making machines) if the Miller feeds in "hard" wheat grains with a higher protein content, so it is "strong" enough for bread-making. You can taste the difference between stoneground wholemeal and other flours; some describe it as almost "nutty". Well made wholemeal is a versatile flour, which will also produce good results with biscuits, cakes, scones and pastry. How to buy For details of what kinds of flour are available, of prices and how to buy, contact the Mill when open - tel: 01304-823292	Example of flour label

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Simple recipes with wholemeal flour: scones & soda bread
Wendy's Famous Scones recipe
Ingredients: 350g (12 oz) Stoneground Wholemeal Flour 350g (12 oz) White Flour 45g (1.5 oz) Baking Powder 225g (8 oz) Hard Margarine 175g (6 oz) Granulated Sugar 175g (6 oz) Sultanas 350ml (12 fl.oz - half pint) half milk/ half water	Method Mix the two sorts of flour together. Add baking powder Rub in margarine until looks like fine breadcrumbs. Mix in sugar and sultanas. Add milk/water and mix ingredients together. Roll to 1 inch (2cm) thickness. Bake in a hot oven (220 deg.C, 425 deg.F) for 12 minutes. Enjoy your stoneground wholemeal scones!
Michael Barry's Soda Bread
Ingredients 450g (1 lb) Crabble Mill Wholemeal Flour 350ml (half pint) mixed milk and water 1 x 15ml (tablespoon) plain yoghurt 1 x 10ml (dessert spoon) soft brown sugar 1 x 2.5ml (half teaspoon) salt 2 x 5ml (teaspoons) baking powder 1 x 5ml (teaspoon) bicarbonate of soda	TV cook Michael Barry is shown here at Crabble Mill in 1998 with Mill Trust Vice-chair Anne Collins and Trust Chairman Alan Davis. In a live demonstration entitled "Crafty Cooking with Flour", Michael Barry enthralled a packed audience in the Mill Cafe as he made four types of bread and several fresh dips - all in one-and-a-half hours! This is one of his recipes: Method Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl Dissolve sugar into the milk mixture and stir in. Knead briefly, divide into 2 rounds. Put these on a baking sheet and cover with basins or cake tins if possible. Bake at 220 degC (425 degF, gas mk 7) for 30 minutes. Remove covers and bake for 10 mins more. Cool for 10 mins before eating. © Copyright Michael Barry 1998

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