ottawa foodies

Gi'day all
Anyone one know of any good places that have quality pepper mills?
What is a quality pepper mill anyways
And while we are on that subject, what about peppercorns?
Freshest,best price,...etc.
I'm a black pepper fanatic.
thanks all in advance.
Cheers

Get a Peugeot pepper grinder. You can find them in any good kitchen store. It will cost about $15-20 for a normal sized one and you will not regret it. Cheap ones tend to stop functioning due to corrosion or dulling from my experience. Peugeot mills are industry standard in good restos.

I have found the best price on spices at Grace on Bank St. I can't speak to the freshness of them though...

Get a pestle and mortar :-)

Cook's Illustraded highly recommends Unicorn Magnum Plus Pepper Mill and William Bounds ProView Pepper Mill

I've had good luck with my SpiceBoy, which has a ceramic mill made by a Denmark company called CrushGrind (www.crushgrind.com/ ). For fun, I've fed it coarse salt, sugar, dry rice (to clean it) fenugreek (very hard stuff), and coffee beans and it chewed them all up quite nicely.

So back to the original question, I have 5 or 6 and the best one I have hands-down is the Swiss one I bought for my wife back in 2000 when I got a free trip there for work. But my cast iron pestle and mortar really is my favorite way to provide freshly ground pepper!

I second Tracinho on this one: Peugeots are fantastic. That SpiceBoy that Pete links to looks quite good too, but I haven't used it!

I recall having a Peugeot that wasn't so fantastic (my bad luck I guess) and replaced it with an Olde Thompson from Domus in the market maybe 20+ years ago and it gives the coarse pepper, almost cracked, that I like, and a good fine grind when needed. Worth a look at least imo: www.oldethompson.com/about.asp

I just use a coffee grinder (non-burr type) or the bottom of a fry pan on my cutting board

then again I prefer a very coarse grind

I have had an assortment of pepper mills over the years... still own a faithful Trudeau... believe there is a Peugeot in the mix as well.

So beyond all these "brand name" grinders lies an interesting little gem and a cute story...

Sometime last summer "The Man" was hosting a BBQ, and discovered he was low on peppercorns... while out at Loblaws he threw what he thought was a bottle of peppercorns in the cart (spice aisle) only to get home to discover that President's Choice makes what looks like a spice bottle but it has a grinder top... works like a dream. And the kicker, it comes apart, you can refill it. Perfect for occasions when you want an "inexpensive" grinder... camping, cottage, outdoors etc.

Thinking of getting another one (they sell them with sea salt in them) so I'll have a matched set.
:-)

Hey Frank,

I too have a Peugeot grinder It has a wide range of grinding ... from just carcked to ultra-fine .... but thens again, any peppermill with a 'tempered steel' grinder mechanism has worked well for me.

As for peppercorns,

See: ottawafoodies.com

I have the Unicorn mill, but I had to get it in the US. I don't think they sell up here, or at least they didn't 4 or 5 years ago when we bought it. It is fantastic though if you can get your hands on one. I also agree the
"crushgrind" works well too, I have one mill I bought years ago for white or mixed peppercorns. Some people do recommend the ceramic mills for our high humidity, as the steel mechanisms can rust. So far though my Unicorn steel mechanism is fine and we have had it for at least 5 years.

I think the general rule, is that the steel ones can grind nice, and last a long time, but they WILL rust if you grind salt with them... which is where ceramic comes in. And the cheap salt mills actually use plastic burrs...ouch! I went for ceramic just so I'd have the ability to grind anything I drop inside... Only had it a couple months, so I can't attest to long term durability.

Check Winners/Homesense, sometimes you can get good ones there. (Sometimes)

I had a Mr Butler for years, which is suppose to have a lifetime guarentee, but poor Mr Butlers lifetime is about up and I do not think I want another. Love the pestle and mortar and use mine often but it is a great workout which sometimes I would like to skip.

Here is a picture of my motar and pestle doing up some Tellicherry peppercorns for a dry rub to be used on some BBQ.

I lub my mortar and pestle. I call her 'Big Burtha'.

I got her in Chinatown a few years ago. $29 and from Thailand(?). The shipping costs alone for the 10 pound unit must have been high.

I've got a funny story involving peppercorns: when my mother in law was here visiting from India, she cooked a vegetable dish with freshly ground pepper. It was tasty but...way too peppery! I thought that was just how she liked it, but later she also said the pepper taste was too strong. Apparently this was because, in India, the peppercorns are adulterated with dried papaya seeds, so she always has to use a lot of pepper to get the proper taste. But here, the pepper one buys really IS pepper, and so the usual quantity was too much.

So be glad that we get quality spices here!