Pepper Mill Suggestions

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In that sense, knives can be resold somewhere relatively near plus or minus purchase price. Try to resell a 320 dollar pepper mill and see how big of an offer you get :)
I take your point. On the other hand, if I do buy this mill, I'll be buying it because I want it. Resell value is of no consequence in that scenario.

As I said earlier, a pepper mill for that much money is total overkill, stupidly expensive, and stupidly beautiful :)
 
Wow that LWW Moulin looks beautifull! Just one of those things I didn't know existed and now need to have. I currently own a Stainless Steel Peugeot (their high end chef model) and its absolute ****... Need constant fiddling with the top screw to get pepper comming out of it. Thought about returning it multiple times already.
 
Wow that LWW Moulin looks beautifull! Just one of those things I didn't know existed and now need to have. I currently own a Stainless Steel Peugeot (their high end chef model) and its absolute ****... Need constant fiddling with the top screw to get pepper comming out of it. Thought about returning it multiple times already.
Same here with old Peugeot. With a recent, adjustable one, problem doesn't occur.
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00RJH92RY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apap_TIrbt1dWLKt7F
 
I bought an old Atlas Mills brass pepper mill on eBay for $20+ and keep it filled with black kampot pepper. It's one of my daily small joys, and the old world look and the heavier feel in your hand when you grind over food is a unique pleasure for me. I bought a copper and a chrome version of the same pepper mill so I could stock them with red and white peppercorns instead of having three of the same mill. I've seen posts talking about Atlas mills someone inherited from a grandmother or had been using for decades.
 
Unicorn is my favorite. Since I have several kinds of pepper in daily use, however, I contacted Unicorn by phone, and they were great to work with. I had them put a white button in the top of one, white cap on another, etc. They will custom match the pieces for you. So , for example the chilpetin is the the white top, the native Madagascar pepper is in the white button, the Madagascaran grown Piper nigra, another just plain. The adjustments work just fine, and the smaller models accommodate a good supply. I am sure somewhere there are mills as good, but I am happy with these.
 
Unicorn magnum. Been a workhorse at home for close to 10 years, in fact I believe I bought it off this thread when it first came about.
Really pleased with it.
It’s odd for me to buy anything with an eye on resale value, unless you have a finite time span that you want to spend with an item.
 
I have a 21 year old William Bounds that simply will not die. It’s tattered now but still showers my food with pepper. It’s awesome. It’s very consistent with the delivery.
I really wanted to love a William Bounds Ltd. pepper mill. It's an ultimate "buy local" for me, they were made in the town where I grew up.

I got one and it worked great for a while. Don't recall if it was even a year when it started acting flaky. Maybe a couple of years. It finally failed completely in the hands of a guest during a 4th of July party.

It was nice that they had a lifetime warranty. But lifetime warranties are only good for the lifetime of the company. Their phones are disconnected, they don't answer emails and if you Google their address their name isn't on the building anymore.


Went ahead and got a Unicorn. I mean everybody has to have one at some point, right? For good reason, it works great. Yeah, it's big and ugly and leaves a mess wherever you set it. It's like pipe wrench, a big, nasty tool you never want to be without while you're working. But you don't want to leave it on the dinner table around polite company.

For the dinner table I picked up a pair of Kyocera ceramic mills.

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.....I'm tempted to get a good electric pepper mill, ....
I'm tempted to go with a variation on the Alton Brown method...



Somewhereorother, I saw that he did a "reload" on the pepper drill. His new version is based on a backpacker's coffee grinder. Not sure where I saw that vid.
 
I have a set of Unicorn's magnum and its shorter sibling. Best thing since sliced bread, considering even sliced bread leaves crumbs to clean up. Good even grind is your priority, think of uneven grinds in the same way you think of a blade with over grinds or stone with non-flat surface
 
I like Unicorn for larger quantities and Peugeot Mills for finishing.

I got my Peugot shortly after joining this forum and it's still going strong. Additionally I bought one for my father, who is horrible to his stuff, and his is still going, too. If it can stand up to him that's some pretty serious durability.
 
I like Unicorn for larger quantities and Peugeot Mills for finishing.

I got my Peugot shortly after joining this forum and it's still going strong. Additionally I bought one for my father, who is horrible to his stuff, and his is still going, too. If it can stand up to him that's some pretty serious durability.

I've had two of the black Peugeot "Paris" pepper mills now and have some complaints about the grinding mechanism itself, however the wooden ring at the base of both of them has broken from falling off the dining table, for example. I can go for many years without the mill falling off the table, but when it's new it will happen almost immediately and the stupid freaking wooden ring breaks and glue won't help it. The wooden base ring is constructed in a very poor manner - not really durable at all. For a pepper mill that commands a premium price, shoddy craftsmanship has turned me off of the brand permanently at this point.

I've yet to try a Unicorn, but that might be next on my list.
 
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More options in the theme of re-purposing manual coffee grinders as pepper mills:



The two have mutually exclusive design goals:

- It's highly desirable for a coffee grinder to produce a completely uniform grind
- It's highly desirable for a pepper mill to produce a relatively uneven grind
 
I've had two of the black Peugeot "Paris" pepper mills now and have some complaints about the grinding mechanism itself, however the wooden ring at the base of both of them has broken from falling off the dining table, for example. I can go for many years without the mill falling off the table, but when it's new it will happen almost immediately and the stupid freaking wooden ring breaks and glue won't help it. The wooden base ring is constructed in a very poor manner - not really durable at all. For a pepper mill that commands a premium price, shoddy craftsmanship has turned me off of the brand permanently at this point.

I've yet to try a Unicorn, but that might be next on my list.

They make a version without the grind size adjuster being that ring, but instead being adjustable with the screw. That may work better for you.

The Unicorn is invincible; it's clearly made for kitchen use.
 
Have recently acquired a Weber mill. As much as I love how well made it is, if you have a magnum, you’re not missing out function and delivery wise
 
I understand the fascination of a well made hand grinder.. But once I found peppermills.com and switched I can never go back. Large capacity, one handed and great grinding.
 
The two have mutually exclusive design goals:

- It's highly desirable for a coffee grinder to produce a completely uniform grind
- It's highly desirable for a pepper mill to produce a relatively uneven grind
Read the link I posted above in #79 so I don't need to copy-paste it here :) It's a short post.

I respectfully decline to agree :) (after reading the post)

They are both designed to turn larger things into smaller things. The overwhelming majority of pepper grinders appear to be simple/cheap burr sets. Not much marketing seems to go into claiming any unique pepper technology. Perhaps there is a difference? If so... the world of artisanal pepper lags behind the world of artisanal coffee! But the subtleties are not obvious or convincing to me.

Surely the major parameter is that using freshly ground pepper produces richer aromatics than stale, preground stuff. I am happy to agree that there is a texture/consistency difference between pepper grinders and a mortar and pestle. I am also happy to agree that texture and grind size makes a difference to taste and experience. Beyond this.... isn't all the rest over optimisation and preference? ;)


One noteworthy point of difference for milling pepper vs other spice is whether the burr will corrode if you put salt into it.
 
I respectfully decline to agree :) (after reading the post)

They are both designed to turn larger things into smaller things. The overwhelming majority of pepper grinders appear to be simple/cheap burr sets. Not much marketing seems to go into claiming any unique pepper technology. Perhaps there is a difference? If so... the world of artisanal pepper lags behind the world of artisanal coffee! But the subtleties are not obvious or convincing to me.

Surely the major parameter is that using freshly ground pepper produces richer aromatics than stale, preground stuff. I am happy to agree that there is a texture/consistency difference between pepper grinders and a mortar and pestle. I am also happy to agree that texture and grind size makes a difference to taste and experience. Beyond this.... isn't all the rest over optimisation and preference? ;)


One noteworthy point of difference for milling pepper vs other spice is whether the burr will corrode if you put salt into it.

You certainly are diplomatic, sir :)

Steak-au-poivre, case in point. My version is grilling a huge tomahawk that is crusted in salt and a very heavy amount of pepper immediately before the steak hits the grill. First I rub in / push in the pepper jumble, then follow with the salt. A consistent, fine or medium grind on the pepper would ruin the choice cut of meat by fully permeating it with the taste of the pepper. A jumble allows for the finer particles to affect some deeper permeation with mild power, the medium-fine particles to affect some mid-level permeation with slightly stronger power and finally coarse particles affect that powerful, coarse crust that hundreds of millions of people have came to know and love over several centuries. With a uniform mill, you'd need to do 3 grinds on 3 different settings and mix it all together before rubbing into the meat. Or you could do what any pro chef would do and use a mortar and pestle. As a compromise to suit the masses, and they certainly do have a massive research and development department, OXO intentionally designs their pepper grinders with some "slop".

Now, if I were seasoning some soup, then that mostly consistent grind would likely be what I was after. My peugeot produces a satisfactory grind, imo, for that case even though I do think the body of the device is shoddy!

As was said in the other thread, going "HI-FI" on pepper mills is a solution in search of a problem. I agree.
 
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