I have recently received a 1983 Magic Mill III. I read through the owner's manual and accompanying documentation and it says that moisture or oil can gum up the mill but does not mention drying your grain anywhere.
In general (bonus points for answers specific to my Magic Mill), do I need to dry my grain before milling? Like by leaving it in the oven on low heat for a while beforehand? I milled some pumpernickel flour last night without drying the rye berries and the flour bucket felt a little hot and there was some flour stuck to the millstone outlet area.
Best Answer
Grains would typically be dried for storage so that they remain dormant and don't sprout or mold. Assuming you're storing them in a sealed container and your ambient humidity isn't ridiculously high, this is probably dry enough for your purposes. Just don't wash or soak the grains without drying them thoroughly.
There's also going to be a small amount of natural oil contained in the grains which you can't really do anything about - that's probably what caused the flour sticking. The mill is designed to accommodate this, just make sure to clean it after use (to avoid any buildup) and don't add additional oil or moisture.