AUTHOR: Julia
TITLE: Kitchen Tools - Spice Grinder
DATE: 10/27/2008 04:05:00 PM
-----
BODY:
My kitchen is small. Tiny, really. So small that I need to consider each piece of equipment for it to warrant space. I have a coffee bean grinder, but not a spice grinder. Some people use the same type of grinder for both jobs, but have two – one for coffee and the other for spices. I just don’t have the cupboard or counter space for both. Since I grind coffee beans every day, it wins the appliance challenge. But I do like fresh ground pepper – and once a month, I grind fresh peppercorns in my coffee bean grinder.
But Julia, you ask, how do you keep the pepper from tasting like coffee? Because I clean the grinder first. And so I don’t electrocute myself, I need to clean the grinder with a dry cleanser – that is, no soap and water. The best tool: raw rice. I grind ¼ cup raw rice to a fine powder. I discard the rice and wipe out the basin. Voila! A clean spice grinder. I don’t bother cleaning in the other direction, because I rather like the idea of a little peppercorn in my coffee.
Before.....

After....
Labels: cooking tips
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Lydia (The Perfect Pantry)
DATE:10/27/2008 08:52:00 PM
Great tip!
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Rachel
DATE:10/27/2008 09:05:00 PM
What type of grinder do you have? We're in the market for one.
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Rachel
DATE:10/27/2008 09:05:00 PM
Thanks!
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Chrisdat
DATE:10/28/2008 06:31:00 AM
Great tip, I used my spice grinder for pepper recently and I could not get rid of the pepper in my other spices. Try nutmeg and pepper - ick! I’m going to give it a try.
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Julia
DATE:10/28/2008 08:41:00 AM
Lydia, thanks.
Rachel, I have a bodum coffee grinder, but I'm not crazy about it. It's designed to grind beans for a coffee press, which is not very fine, so I've had to learn to finesse it to get the finer grind that I prefer.
Chrisdat, thanks for the warning. I'll be sure to avoid that combo.
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Melissa
DATE:10/29/2008 01:55:00 PM
Thank you so much for the rice tip! I hate cleaning out my grinder.
-----
--------