Poppy Seed (poppyseed) grinder recommendations?

I'm looking for a grinder for poppy seeds. I'd prefer a hand grinder but electric would work as well.



Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Albino_BlacMan said:

I'm looking for a grinder for poppy seeds. I'd prefer a hand grinder but electric would work as well.



Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

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I'm afraid I don't have any recommendations....I'm more interested to understand how one uses ground poppy seeds, that's new to me.

As said in another thread, I'm not without a glass or two of wine tonight, but are poppy seeds not small enough as is? Otherwise just lash them in an electric grinder and pulse it. But why? That sounds a bit abrupt but I'm kinda curious and have a hunch but I'm not really sure:newhere:

Depends what you want to do

There are actually poppy seed grinders. An old coffee grinder somewhat works but due to the oil in these little seeds you'll make a mess; I've added sugar to the process as to absorb some of the oils and keep the seeds from becoming a paste and sticking to everything. but it does work. If what you want is just to crush the seeds to get the flavors out I would recommend a large mortar and pestle to break up the shells.

Pastries and cakes are the main purpose; traditional in Viennese and Hungarian kitchens

Wellcome to the forum!

We have a poppy seed grinder which looks pretty much like this one (first one I found on google):



It has a conical drums with grooves inside which presses agains the inner walls as you turn it. It works perfectly. You use the screw to adjust the pressure. Very easy.

And yes - most of the time one needs to grind poppy seed - they are like tiny balls and have much stronger taste and very different consistency once ground.

As to where to buy one - I had one problem to find plenty on ebay and surely plenty shops carry them too (may depend on your location which is unknown to us)

muddywaterstones said:

As said in another thread, I'm not without a glass or two of wine tonight, but are poppy seeds not small enough as is? Otherwise just lash them in an electric grinder and pulse it. But why? That sounds a bit abrupt but I'm kinda curious and have a hunch but I'm not really sure:newhere:

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the size is kinda the point/problem, they are too small to "bite" into them and get the flavor rather like soft sand if you don't process somewhat - in my experience. Baked goods

Matus said:

Wellcome to the forum!

We have a poppy seed grinder which looks pretty much like this one (first one I found on google):

It has a conical drums with grooves inside which presses agains the inner walls as you turn it. It works perfectly. You use the screw to adjust the pressure. Very easy.

And yes - most of the time one needs to grind poppy seed - they are like tiny balls and have much stronger taste and very different consistency once ground.

As to where to buy one - I had one problem to find plenty on ebay and surely plenty shops carry them too (may depend on your location which is unknown to us)

Click to expand...

Interesting...my primary experience with poppy seeds is from South Indian cuisine and IME they are used whole. I'm talking about the little white ones though, not the darker ones.

Dear Santa,

I just saw a toy I don't have...

Now I need one.

Interesting. Seems like there is a whole world of stuff I know nothing about. But would pulsing in a cheapo electric grinder compromise the flavours that much?

I say this as someone owning several manual coffee grinders and as someone who has burned out several electric ones. The difference is minimal between the the two. Don't believe the hype. Burr, blade, bull! Poppy seeds would largely slip through a manual coffee grinder so there would be no point. I never knew there was a specialised tool though, goddamn!

The only reason I could think to grind them (believe it or not I didn't think it would improve flavour) was that they are probably indigestible, so whatever nutrients are inside probably pass right through our system without ever being absorbed. Gonna have to try a comparison.

If someone's making Hamentaschen, please save me some. Ground poppy seeds are used in lots of Eastern European pastries and breads. You can buy grinders on E bay. Any adjustable train/nut mill should work. No comparison to the canned pastes.

I'm a big fan of the mortar and pestle.

Dardeau said:

I'm a big fan of the mortar and pestle.

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Well, when making a poppy seed (black ones) cake you need some 200g or more of ground poppy seed. that would take a while with a mortar since the seeds give quite some resistance

Anyhow - I have heard that poppy seed (black) is not available in USA because the plant (looks like little ball on a stem) can be used to make drugs (opium - see wikipedia). Is that true - I mean about availability.

We pulse an el cheapo electric grinder. Works well for us.

Matus said:

Well, when making a poppy seed (black ones) cake you need some 200g or more of ground poppy seed. that would take a while with a mortar since the seeds give quite some resistance

Anyhow - I have heard that poppy seed (black) is not available in USA because the plant (looks like little ball on a stem) can be used to make drugs (opium - see wikipedia). Is that true - I mean about availability.

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What's a bagel without poppy seeds? I can buy them in bulk nearby. Probably the drugs too unfortunately . We use them on pizza crusts too ( messy)

In 6 wonderful, fun filled years in the U.S. Navy, was advised to not eat anything with poppy seeds as they could trigger a false positive in a piss test. Never knew if the advice had any merit but if the Chief said it...... And I prefer the onion or garlic bagels anyway.

The TV show Mythbusters showed a guy testing positive within 1/2 hour of eating 3 poppy seed bagels. Still tested positive 2 days later iirc. Maybe I'll talk to my kids about switching to sesame.

Sounds like the piss test could use some improvement. No way I would give-up poppy seed yeast-dough cakes my wife bakes

This is what we use them for in Europe, for anyone interested! "Makowiec" in Poland -


The poppy seeds need to be crushed to make that paste. Otherwise they taste mostly of nothingness... like eating poppy seeds on their own.

Next time my wife bakes poppy seed cakes I will post some photos. Or maybe we could do a passaround

Would a Vitamix with a dry grains container work?