This season I'm planting some Chimayo chile in the garden. We really
like the flavor and have seeds from an acquaintance who lives in
Chimayo, NM. What I'm looking for are some suggestions for a good
quality mill to grind the dried pods. I know nothing about mills or
how much variation they have in the fineness of the grind. I certainly
don't need flour-fine but certainly much finer than flakes. If
fineness can be adjusted the ability to do flour or cornmeal type
coarseness would be a big plus. If these plants produce well I'll do a
lot of them next year so a mill of some capacity would be very nice.

Thanks,

tf

On May 22, 7:49*am, wrote:
> This season I'm planting some Chimayo chile in the garden. We really
> like the flavor and have seeds from an acquaintance who lives in
> Chimayo, NM. What I'm looking for are some suggestions for a good
> quality mill to grind the dried pods. I know nothing about mills or
> how much variation they have in the fineness of the grind. I certainly
> don't need flour-fine but certainly much finer than flakes. If
> fineness can be adjusted the ability to do flour or cornmeal type
> coarseness would be a big plus. If these plants produce well I'll do a
> lot of them next year so a mill of some capacity would be very nice.
>
> Thanks,
>
> tf

Maybe a mortar & pestle?

> wrote in message
...
> This season I'm planting some Chimayo chile in the garden. We really
> like the flavor and have seeds from an acquaintance who lives in
> Chimayo, NM. What I'm looking for are some suggestions for a good
> quality mill to grind the dried pods. I know nothing about mills or
> how much variation they have in the fineness of the grind. I certainly
> don't need flour-fine but certainly much finer than flakes. If
> fineness can be adjusted the ability to do flour or cornmeal type
> coarseness would be a big plus. If these plants produce well I'll do a
> lot of them next year so a mill of some capacity would be very nice.
>
> Thanks,
>
> tf

go online and look at theurbanhomemaker.com. They have a lot of good items
and have detailed instructions on what works best on what materials...Gives
you an idea of what you'll get if you buy it.
-ginny

"Virginia Tadrzynski" > wrote in message
...
>
> > wrote in message
> ...
>> This season I'm planting some Chimayo chile in the garden. We really
>> like the flavor and have seeds from an acquaintance who lives in
>> Chimayo, NM. What I'm looking for are some suggestions for a good
>> quality mill to grind the dried pods. I know nothing about mills or
>> how much variation they have in the fineness of the grind. I certainly
>> don't need flour-fine but certainly much finer than flakes. If
>> fineness can be adjusted the ability to do flour or cornmeal type
>> coarseness would be a big plus. If these plants produce well I'll do a
>> lot of them next year so a mill of some capacity would be very nice.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> tf
>
> go online and look at theurbanhomemaker.com. They have a lot of good
> items and have detailed instructions on what works best on what
> materials...Gives you an idea of what you'll get if you buy it.
> -ginny
>
>

A few years ago I had a bumper crop of super hot jalopenos. Many I pickled,
the rest I threaded with a sewing needle onto white cotton thread, tied them
into leis and hung them in my kitchen (very decorative). About 4 months
passed and they were dry. The stems pulled off easily. I tried placing
them in a zip-loc and going at them with a rolling pin, no way. I tried my
meat grinder, the fiery hot dust made my kitchen into a gas chamber.
Finally I placed a couple cupfuls at a time into my Oster blender with the
glass container... pulsed until the consistancy I wanted, let the dust in
the container settle, and carefully poured my perfectly ground peppers into
a jar... repeated in batches until I had about a quart.... I still have more
than 3/4 left and most of what's missing is what I gave to my neighbor... he
even admits it's almost too hot for him and he says he loves hot pepper.
This is about three times hotter than the crushed pepper folks sprinkle on
pizza so it'll be a long time before I use it up. I don't think I'd try
this in a food processor or blender with a plastic container, dried pepper
is fairly abrasive.

wrote:
> This season I'm planting some Chimayo chile in the garden. We really
> like the flavor and have seeds from an acquaintance who lives in
> Chimayo, NM. What I'm looking for are some suggestions for a good
> quality mill to grind the dried pods. I know nothing about mills or
> how much variation they have in the fineness of the grind. I certainly
> don't need flour-fine but certainly much finer than flakes. If
> fineness can be adjusted the ability to do flour or cornmeal type
> coarseness would be a big plus. If these plants produce well I'll do a
> lot of them next year so a mill of some capacity would be very nice.
>
> Thanks,
>
> tf


You don't need a grain mill for that. A cheap electric coffee grinder
will work better. But also you should learn to use whole dried chiles:
break them up in to small saucepan, removing the stem and the
easy-to-remove seeds. You don't need to get all the seeds out. Cover
with water and simmer until the peppers are rehydrated and soft.
Blended them up with an electric blender, then strain out the skins by
forcing the puree thru a wire mesh strainer using the back of a tablespoon.

The chile paste works better than ground chile for cooking, but the
ground chiles are more convenient. (I use both)

If you want to grind corn to make your own cornmeal, the Corona
hand-crank mills do a great job, but that's not what you asked about

Bob