From the America's Test Kitchen Web site. Not sure who the author is, the name was not included.
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Grinding Spices at Home - Spice Grinders
A few years ago, I spent some time on the championship chili cookoff circuit, where most competitors summarily dismiss packaged chili powder in favor of grinding their own dried chiles. I tested the matter thoroughly and found that grinding fresh, toasted chiles does indeed give chili con carne a noticeable depth and complexity of flavor. Having little doubt that fresh-ground spices also improve other dishes, I recently conducted two tests to prove my point. I baked plain pound cakes flavored with cardamom and simmered savory chutneys flavored with cumin, coriander, and cardamom, blind-tasting samples prepared with freshly ground and preground supermarket spices side by side. The fresh-ground spices won a decisive victory for their superior aroma, vibrancy, and roundness of flavor.
The test kitchen standard for grinding spices is an inexpensive blade-type electric coffee grinder (which we use for spices only, reserving a separate unit to grind coffee), but we had never put it up against other devices designed specifically for the task. Could we be missing out on something? To determine the answer to that question, I gathered 13 devices in three basic designs; dedicated spice grinders that are similar to pepper mills, old-fashioned mortars and pestles (and variations), and electric coffee grinders (choosing the models recommended in our November/December 2001 rating), and used them to reduce mountains of cardamom seeds, toasted whole cumin and coriander seeds, and chipotle chiles to fine powders. I was looking for a grinder that would produce the most delicate, uniform powder and that was easy to both use and clean.
Grinding Three Ways
First up were the dedicated spice grinders. Like pepper mills, they are torsion-operated, meaning that you twist one part of the device (a glass or plastic jar loaded with spices) while holding a second part steady (a grinder housing screwed to the jar). The grinding mechanism consists of a rotating, grooved "male" head that fits into a stationary, grooved "female" ring. Wider grooves where the two meet break the seeds and feed the pieces down into finer grooves that grind them.
Many manufacturers tout grinding mechanisms made of ceramic, which is said to be superhard and corrosion-resistant. Despite these alleged advantages, I found that these models clogged easily with spice residue, essentially stopping the output of ground spices. The same was true for steel mechanisms. To keep things moving, I found myself repeatedly dismantling the units to clear their grooves with the fine tip of a bamboo skewer. This routine got very irritating very fast.
That, added to the exhausting, frustrating, endless twisting required to wrest ground spices from these units, made testing six of them consecutively seem like an act of masochism. Not that I couldn't use a little extra exercise, but who wants a grueling upper body workout when trying to grind a teaspoon of cumin?
It would be a different story if their output was strong and consistent, but I found that even the best of them, the Genius and the Emsa, frequently became clogged, especially when grinding oily spices. On the whole, I'd skip torsion-operated grinders altogether.
Next up were three versions of the age-old mortar and pestle, including a Japanese suribachi with a textured grinding surface to help break down the contents. As a group, these were no more effective than the torsion-operated grinders. To me, the action required to work a mortar and pestle was less stressful than the repetitive motion required to work the torsion-operated grinders, but it was still too much effort considering the disappointing piles of bruised, mangled seeds that I produced.
Last up were the electric coffee grinders, which were, in short, like breaths of fresh air. The only physical exertion required to use them was pressing a button. No stress, strain, or sore forearms, and they produced consistently good results on all of the test spices. And it only got better: The coffee grinders were easy to brush or wipe clean (just mind the blade!), easy to control for texture of grind, and no more expensive than the manual grinders and mortars and pestles.
The Spin on Coffee Grinders
So the coffee grinders reigned supreme. End of story, right? Not so fast. We ground on to compare the four models' performance grinding spices in three amounts: small (1 teaspoon), medium (1 tablespoon), and large (1/4 cup).
In contrast with the manual grinders' tales of woe, the four blade-type electric grinders, by Capresso, Krups, Mr. Coffee, and Braun, whizzed through the tests with flying colors, producing fine powders from each amount of each spice. Along the way, though, I noted that I had to grind for a full minute or more (in short bursts, and shaking the grinder occasionally to even out the grind) to achieve a sufficiently fine particle size. Only the lone burr mill, which worked like a motorized pepper grinder, failed to grind the spices finely enough, even when adjusted to its finest setting.
The lengthy grinding time required by the blade grinders was a concern, though. When I tested these grinders with coffee beans back in 2001, coffee industry experts reported that the blades, which spin at 14,000 to 20,000 RPM, can overheat the coffee as it's ground, degrading its flavor. Although tasters were unable to detect any deterioration in the coffee's flavor as a result, it takes more time to grind spices than it does to grind coffee beans, so I was worried, even though many cooks gently toast spices to bring out their flavor. Donna Tainter, director of quality, research, and development for Tone Brothers Spices in Ankeny, Iowa, explained that as with coffee, too much heat will evaporate, or "flash off," the volatile oils that give spices their flavor. "For large commercial grinders, which grind thousands of pounds of spices per lot," she said, "accumulated heat from the grinders can cause a significant threat to flavor." Commercial grinders, however, have processes to limit heat buildup during grinding (for instance, Tone's cools some spices with liquid nitrogen in a process called cryogenic grinding). Would overheating from the spinning blade of an electric grinder pose a problem for home cooks?
To find out, I returned to the cardamom cake and chutney, this time making one batch of each with whole spices that I ground manually in a torsion-operated grinder and another batch with whole spices ground in an electric coffee grinder. There were very subtle differences, but both types of grinder produced cake and chutney superior to those made with commercially ground spices. I concluded that there's no need to worry about overheating spices in an electric grinder.
While complex or ethnic dishes such as chilis, curries, and barbecues are natural candidates for fresh-ground spices, simple savories and sweets also benefit from the extra measure of flavor provided when you toast and grind your own fresh, whole spices. And there's no need to pump up your biceps along the way, provided you bypass the manual grinders and stick to an electric coffee grinder. In my book, it's the only way to go.
---------------
Grinding Spices at Home - Spice Grinders
A few years ago, I spent some time on the championship chili cookoff circuit, where most competitors summarily dismiss packaged chili powder in favor of grinding their own dried chiles. I tested the matter thoroughly and found that grinding fresh, toasted chiles does indeed give chili con carne a noticeable depth and complexity of flavor. Having little doubt that fresh-ground spices also improve other dishes, I recently conducted two tests to prove my point. I baked plain pound cakes flavored with cardamom and simmered savory chutneys flavored with cumin, coriander, and cardamom, blind-tasting samples prepared with freshly ground and preground supermarket spices side by side. The fresh-ground spices won a decisive victory for their superior aroma, vibrancy, and roundness of flavor.
The test kitchen standard for grinding spices is an inexpensive blade-type electric coffee grinder (which we use for spices only, reserving a separate unit to grind coffee), but we had never put it up against other devices designed specifically for the task. Could we be missing out on something? To determine the answer to that question, I gathered 13 devices in three basic designs; dedicated spice grinders that are similar to pepper mills, old-fashioned mortars and pestles (and variations), and electric coffee grinders (choosing the models recommended in our November/December 2001 rating), and used them to reduce mountains of cardamom seeds, toasted whole cumin and coriander seeds, and chipotle chiles to fine powders. I was looking for a grinder that would produce the most delicate, uniform powder and that was easy to both use and clean.
Grinding Three Ways
First up were the dedicated spice grinders. Like pepper mills, they are torsion-operated, meaning that you twist one part of the device (a glass or plastic jar loaded with spices) while holding a second part steady (a grinder housing screwed to the jar). The grinding mechanism consists of a rotating, grooved "male" head that fits into a stationary, grooved "female" ring. Wider grooves where the two meet break the seeds and feed the pieces down into finer grooves that grind them.
Many manufacturers tout grinding mechanisms made of ceramic, which is said to be superhard and corrosion-resistant. Despite these alleged advantages, I found that these models clogged easily with spice residue, essentially stopping the output of ground spices. The same was true for steel mechanisms. To keep things moving, I found myself repeatedly dismantling the units to clear their grooves with the fine tip of a bamboo skewer. This routine got very irritating very fast.
That, added to the exhausting, frustrating, endless twisting required to wrest ground spices from these units, made testing six of them consecutively seem like an act of masochism. Not that I couldn't use a little extra exercise, but who wants a grueling upper body workout when trying to grind a teaspoon of cumin?
It would be a different story if their output was strong and consistent, but I found that even the best of them, the Genius and the Emsa, frequently became clogged, especially when grinding oily spices. On the whole, I'd skip torsion-operated grinders altogether.
Next up were three versions of the age-old mortar and pestle, including a Japanese suribachi with a textured grinding surface to help break down the contents. As a group, these were no more effective than the torsion-operated grinders. To me, the action required to work a mortar and pestle was less stressful than the repetitive motion required to work the torsion-operated grinders, but it was still too much effort considering the disappointing piles of bruised, mangled seeds that I produced.
Last up were the electric coffee grinders, which were, in short, like breaths of fresh air. The only physical exertion required to use them was pressing a button. No stress, strain, or sore forearms, and they produced consistently good results on all of the test spices. And it only got better: The coffee grinders were easy to brush or wipe clean (just mind the blade!), easy to control for texture of grind, and no more expensive than the manual grinders and mortars and pestles.
The Spin on Coffee Grinders
So the coffee grinders reigned supreme. End of story, right? Not so fast. We ground on to compare the four models' performance grinding spices in three amounts: small (1 teaspoon), medium (1 tablespoon), and large (1/4 cup).
In contrast with the manual grinders' tales of woe, the four blade-type electric grinders, by Capresso, Krups, Mr. Coffee, and Braun, whizzed through the tests with flying colors, producing fine powders from each amount of each spice. Along the way, though, I noted that I had to grind for a full minute or more (in short bursts, and shaking the grinder occasionally to even out the grind) to achieve a sufficiently fine particle size. Only the lone burr mill, which worked like a motorized pepper grinder, failed to grind the spices finely enough, even when adjusted to its finest setting.
The lengthy grinding time required by the blade grinders was a concern, though. When I tested these grinders with coffee beans back in 2001, coffee industry experts reported that the blades, which spin at 14,000 to 20,000 RPM, can overheat the coffee as it's ground, degrading its flavor. Although tasters were unable to detect any deterioration in the coffee's flavor as a result, it takes more time to grind spices than it does to grind coffee beans, so I was worried, even though many cooks gently toast spices to bring out their flavor. Donna Tainter, director of quality, research, and development for Tone Brothers Spices in Ankeny, Iowa, explained that as with coffee, too much heat will evaporate, or "flash off," the volatile oils that give spices their flavor. "For large commercial grinders, which grind thousands of pounds of spices per lot," she said, "accumulated heat from the grinders can cause a significant threat to flavor." Commercial grinders, however, have processes to limit heat buildup during grinding (for instance, Tone's cools some spices with liquid nitrogen in a process called cryogenic grinding). Would overheating from the spinning blade of an electric grinder pose a problem for home cooks?
To find out, I returned to the cardamom cake and chutney, this time making one batch of each with whole spices that I ground manually in a torsion-operated grinder and another batch with whole spices ground in an electric coffee grinder. There were very subtle differences, but both types of grinder produced cake and chutney superior to those made with commercially ground spices. I concluded that there's no need to worry about overheating spices in an electric grinder.
While complex or ethnic dishes such as chilis, curries, and barbecues are natural candidates for fresh-ground spices, simple savories and sweets also benefit from the extra measure of flavor provided when you toast and grind your own fresh, whole spices. And there's no need to pump up your biceps along the way, provided you bypass the manual grinders and stick to an electric coffee grinder. In my book, it's the only way to go.
