Types of mills


 
C

CullenJ

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The "removing clove flavor" topic has me wondering, do any of y'all use a burr grinder for spices? I'm using a blade grinder that was my former coffee grinder many moons ago, but I wonder if the burr grinder would provide a more even grind with a greater variety of grinds - like with coffee.

Is there some reason to not use a burr grinder?
 
I recall someone posing a similar question, not too long ago. unfortunately a search for "burr" only yielded hits directly related to coffee.

you might want to do some searching around here yourself while your waiting for a reply.
 
Thanks, J. I did the same and had the same result.

I use a burr grinder for coffee and think it's superior to blade grinders. I would think that this would be the way to go for spices, but I was just wondering if anyone here knows something about them that I don't.
 
Only some burr grinders work okay with spices - it depends on the model and the spices in question. Quite a few do not grind fine enough, or do not handle large spices, or are difficult to clean.

Because I grind spices of many sizes, dried chilies, legumes and nuts, and make numerous pastes, I use the Asia Grinder model from Sumeet.
 
I mainly use blade grinders for spices. I have an older Kitchenaid model with a deep metal bowl that gets most of the use. I also have one of the <$20 models laying around.

For some spices - like whole coriander - I have some manual ceramic burr mills similar to a pepper mill that I like to use unless large quantities are needed. I picked these up at Ikea.
 
Wow Kevin - they look like they can get the job done for sure. Which model are you using? Pretty cool in that they do wet or dry. And have good range AFA quantity.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by CullenJ:
The "removing clove flavor" topic has me wondering, do any of y'all use a burr grinder for spices? I'm using a blade grinder that was my former coffee grinder many moons ago, but I wonder if the burr grinder would provide a more even grind with a greater variety of grinds - like with coffee.

Is there some reason to not use a burr grinder? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>


...a grinder that's used for obtaining finely ground coffee for turkish style coffee:

Look here.
 
I have had the #5 brass mill (above) with the catch cup underneath for 15 or more years and absolutely love it and use its large capacity for my Tellicherry peppercorns. The grind is adjustable and the setting stays put. I usually use it for quantity grinding.

I also really like my large Unicorn grinder (no catch cup) for everyday grinding, but I have to keep tightening the screw on the bottom or the grind will get progressively coarser upon successive uses. Anyone else have that problem?

I never thought of using the brass grinder for other spices!

I just tried it with coriander seeds. First, it's a bit inconvenient to unscrew the nut on top, remove the handle and cover, and load up the seeds, then replace them all before grinding. Second, the coriander shells were ground moderately coarse, about the same as they were in my blade coffee grinder. I'd sift them for some applications where I needed a fine texture.

Rita
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Because I grind spices of many sizes, dried chilies, legumes and nuts, and make numerous pastes, I use the Asia Grinder model from Sumeet. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

do you have the multi grind?

this unit has peaked my curiosity and it just so happens that I'm going to be very close to the sumeet distributor in toronto in a month or so. I'm going to email them to see if they have it in stock and sell out of there office.
 
No, the Asia Grinder. Go to the home page then click Models. Top one listed. Multiple jars and blades.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I use the Asia Grinder model from Sumeet. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

duh. my bad.

Kevin, I sent you a PM regarding your thoughts on the multi grind, but it looks like its out of stock.
 
For relatively hard, dry items - the burr grinder will usually produce a superior grind.

HOWEVER (and it's a pretty big "however..") the burr grinder, because of the shape of the burr that shaves / scrapes small bits of the material being ground, can trap bits of the stuff, and can be hard to thoroughly clean.
(Sort of like cross-contamination in the beer lines feeding the taps at your area taverns. Some do a better job of flushing the lines when they switch to different brews - some flavors, like the Lein-n-kugL berry, were very hard to get out of the lines.)

For instance, if all you use it for is coffee, I would think that a burr grinder is definitely the way to go, as long as you do not drink a lot of pre-flavored beans, and like to switch between flavors.

However, if you want to switch to/from/between sweet to hot to savory type spices, and do not want cross-contamination of the flavors, a burr grinder is probably not a good idea. In this case, a small, whirling-blade grinder may be a better choice because of the ease of cleaning - even though the grind quality is inferior.

If you do big batches of rubs - you may want to consider separate grinders for your sweet spices, savory spices, peppercorns etc - where a little cross-contamination may not be a big deal for you. (My Grandmother had a hand-crank ginder, with the wooden box / drawer underneath - that was strictly reserved for milling poppy-seed for baking.)

That grinder that Krueger-san pointed out sounds really interesting.
 
I'd be interested in the thoughts between the Sumeet Asia grinder vs. something like a Vitamix with the dry and wet containers?

I've got a vitamix and so that's why I ask. For mixing rubs I've thought about doing semi bulk quantities in the 32 oz dry container and letting it run on high for a few minutes. As long as I was making something like 2 - 3 cups total it seems like you could put all spices whole in the container and let it run for 2-3 minutes and create a very fine grind.

The Sumeet looks very interesting, but I'm wondering how much overlap there is between it and the Vitamix and also about the overall size of the Sumeet.

Brad.
 
Not sure. I have an older Vitamix - single SS container. Pastes or powders in small quantities aren't its thing. I don't know if the newer Vitamix's dry container would handle dry better, or if the newer wet container would work better for pastes than the old model's. My guess is yes in both cases. As for a comparison to the Sumeet I'm not sure either. It will not do as much as the Vitamix because the containers are smaller. But I don't do large amounts as grinding in quantity generates too much heat. Heat affects flavor volatiles.
 
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