The grinder should feel comfortable in your hand, and some form of non-slip grip is helpful for kitchen use.

Whichever housing material you choose, it should be resistant to rust and corrosion. Acrylic is also rugged, and it has the benefit that you can tell at a glance how full the grinder is. Stainless steel is rugged and stylish, while wood offers a timeless, classic design. Popular housing materials include stainless steel, wood, and acrylic. The outer shell of a pepper grinder can take several forms. What separates the different models, aside from color and style, is its durability (will it last a lifetime), ease of use, and whether it's adjustable.There are two primary construction areas that you need to consider with pepper grinders: the exterior housing and the interior grinding rotors. Still, they all use gravity to feed peppercorns into a grinding mechanism similar to a coffee grinder.

Since the mid-1800s, when Peugeot introduced its pepper mill, manufacturers have played around with the design, offering models with a knob twist, crank, ratchet, or motor. It's also why good restaurants offer to grind it freshly at the table instead of leaving a shaker. Even as they reach their expiration date, whole spices can be toasted and then ground to revive their flavor. Ground pepper starts to lose its flavor and aroma almost immediately once its shell is broken, which is why we should follow Garten's lead and freshly grind pepper for all our recipes. After six months in the pantry, most dried spices become flat and lose their potency, requiring double the amount to do the same job, whereas freshly ground whole spices are aromatic and have a shelf life of up to five years.

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