Does Veeky Forums grind its own spices?

If you're grinding spices make sure it's hard stone (I like granite). Apart from that just buy whatever is cheapest.

Get a size bigger than you think you want.

a heavy, solid one

I needs to be heavy, really heavy.

I grind my own pepper.
Pepper is a spice.

I like ceramic ones such as the Milton Brook ones, although cheaper ceramic ones will also work.

This is a spice thread. If you are grinding spices in a ceramic mortar and pestle you're a lost cause.

recommend me a pepper grinder. the ones on amazon all have very mixed reviews

>he doesn't own a mortar & pestle
fuckin' amateur

I have an OXO one. There might be better ones out there but I like it.
The grind selector clicks nicely and is hard to move by accident.
The grinds are fairly consistent.
It's easy to fill and fits in my hand.

I also have a more traditional looking one that I don't like but I can hook it up to a hand drill for when I need a shit ton of pepper.

He was implying you are a pleb for using a ceramic mortar instead of granite, faglord.

What’s wrong with a ceramic mortar and Pestle?

I usually buy enough ground to keep a masala dabba stocked for handiness sake. But the cupboard is stocked with whole spices which I grind as needed.

It's not for spices dipshit. Ceramic is light and brittle. If you use the proper spice grinding technique (pounding) you will shatter your equipment.

Ceramic is for abrasive grinding of soft material.

Sorry for the aggression. I thought you were

I was just at a Homegoods/TJ.Maxx store because you can find some good stuff in the corners.
They had a bunch of Mortar and Pestles from different manufacturers, made from different materials. More than half the stone mortar and pestle had chips and cracks out of the rims. The ceramic mortar and pestles were fine. You are aware there are many different types of ceramic materials, and the ceramic mortar and pestles are likely made from an impact resistant high alumina ceramic material similar to that used for electrical fixtures?

Check out Mr. can't afford a proper mortar & pestle over here.

Wht’s wrong with saving some money, and finding weird stuff you wouldn’t have otherwise found locally. Half the weird but nice brands I like, are things I’ve found on closeout at places like Marshalls and Homegoods. If I like them I go find other stuff by them, if not I toss the stuff or give it away, and don’t wind up pissed at a retailer for selling massively overpriced shit. One of my favorite pots is a Staub I purchased for $16 at Marshalls.
And again, fucking stone mortar and pestles I’ve seen on display usually have chips missing from the stone, from people banging the mortar and pestle display models in the store. This includes both marble and granite models. Ceramic models are usually fine.

I'm sure yours makes a lovely ornament lad.

Can confirm, when I bought mine I scoffed at all the bigger sizes, now mine is too small. You can really only fill about 1/10th of it's volume in spices, otherwise you're just grinding spices into spices, and that's not effective.

Anyone else find certain things really fucking hard to grind? I just cannot get Cumin to a fine powder.

>Anyone else find certain things really fucking hard to grind?

Methi.

I just used one to finely powder some coarse salt, because I like my salt the consistency of confectioners sugar, and the store doesn’t have salt that fine.

Never stop dreaming poorfag, someday it could be you!

Sorry you couldn’t find a cow to milk for this mornings breakfast.

Sometimes, I do it with a mortar and pestle but not always, sometimes it's just easier to buy stuff already ground. It's always best to grind stuff myself but sometimes it's just like wtf I don't want to deal with it.

Toasting the cumin will make it more brittle.

TJ Maxx is almost always merchandise they can't sell at its other stores and so it tends to be either damaged or lower quality.

why shouldnt i just buy ground pepper?

Just on the off chance you're not trolling; pepper is extremely volatile and loses a lot of flavour just minutes after you crack the peppercorns. You might as well use the dust from under your bed if you use pre-ground.
It's not even cheaper.

Yes, I also grow my own spices.

Not him, but I use a few things. For fine powder I use a very large, granite, mortar and pestle for the final grind. For coarse grinds I use a Universal Food Chopper. For a medium-fine grind I use a Victoria grain mill (normally used for making cornmeal/masa, not flour). You can see the latter two in this image.

The flavor difference is amazing. It is even more pronounced when you start growing you own spices.

thats pretty damn cool user
im moving soon and i will have planters on the balconies, how easy is growing your own black pepper?

use to, but tried making a 'coffee' from dried date pitts and it completely fucked up the blades in my grinder.

T J Maxx, Homegoods, and Marshalls are all owned by the same people. Ross is another version, but owned by different people, and usually not with as good selection, though they do sometimes have great stuff. When I first started checking out these stores, was when Bush Jr was in office and the economy was really good, so the stores tended to get really good stuff, from really good brands, that simply didn’t sell that season. This included high end stuff like Staub, Demeyere, Le Creuset, All-Clad, Kuhn Rikon, Global, and more obscure brands.
When the economy went to shit, high end stuff started to dry up, but it took several years or more, and even then it didn’t completely dry up, it just diminished a large amount, with the worst problems being at the small store locations, that didn’t get the better stuff. Marshalls etc. made up the difference in available goods with cheaper goods that may have been made or branded for them, and with cheaper chinese goods that were lacking.
Since the economy has started getting better, good stuff hass started turning up in larger quantities again. Some brands I know, other ones I don’t, but if you can tell quality you can find good stuff, and with the internet on one’s phone it’s easier to check other stuff. Sadly the store clerks can also check prices more easily.
My local store just got a bunch of Alessi stuff, and I got some nice wool blankets for $22 that wood normally have cost ten times that.

Preground pepper tastes like cardboard compared to freshly ground pepper. My biggest complaint when I recently went to Chick-Fil-A was that they had peper shakers full of AWFULL preground pepper. The pepper from the little disposable paper packs was better but still nowhere near as good as fresh ground pepper.

I don't have black pepper homegrown yet. I don't have a greenhouse. My neighbor is growing black pepper in a sunroom in his house, it seems easy enough to grow. He pollinates it with an artist's paintbrush attached to the tip of an old electric toothbrush. I didn't want to grow my own until I tried the stuff he was growing. I don't use much of it anyway. I use Hungarian wax pepper for general spiciness. This year is the first year I'll be growing my own cumin. I use a tons of it, like the H.wax pepper, and it is about time I grow it. Garlic is another thing I grow for fresh and for powdered, mostly, but also for indoor growing for fresh cuttings of the green tops. Same goes with onion and their tops for chopped frozen and powdered (pic.)