Instructions: Pepper Mills / Spice Grinders
Bon Appétit !
Thank you for choosing one of our handturned Chef’s Mills or Table Mills. We hope you will enjoy using it to season and enhance the flavours you share with family and friends..
Nothing beats the taste and texture of freshly milled peppercorns or sea-salt . . .
The ultimate combination of art and function, hand turned wood mills spice up any culinary experience and add elegance to your kitchen and dining room. Whether used in the preparation of a fine meal, or as a table grinder for everyday use, our spice mills are the perfect touch.
Great care and craftsmanship go into each of our hand crafted wood spice mills. Each piece is individually turnedusing only the finest domestic and exotic hardwoods, and hand buffed to a soft sheen using the best quality earth friendly wood finishes. Variations in wood grain, colour and texture make each of our pepper and salt grinders truly unique.
All of our hand turned mills feature authentic CrushGrind™ ceramic mechanisms. CrushGrind™ revolutionized the grinding business by introducing a unique ceramic mechanism, designed to grind not only pepper but also salt, spices and even coffee. The heart of the mechanism is its harder than steel ceramic cone and crown. Well designed, reliable, durable, easy to adjust . . . we believe that they are simply the best grinding mechanisms available today !!
How to Use Your Mill
The gear of the CrushGrind™ mechanism is made from hi-tech ceramic. In addition to peppercorns and dried sea-salt, you can grind all kinds of dried herbs and spices. We hope you will enjoy the superior quality of your new mill!
1. Gently pull-off the grinder head or the stopper (depending on the design of your mill)
2. Fill it with your favourite spice
3. Adjust it. The grey SpiceWheel™ adjusts the coarseness of your grinding. Turn it clock-wise for a finer grinding. Turn it anti-clock-wise for a coarser grinding. (We recommend medium-coarse setting for spice blends that tend to be oily.)
4. Grind! Enjoy the full flavour from freshly ground spice.
How to Care for Your Mill
Wood is beautiful, warm, and quite utilitarian. With minimal care, your hand turned spice mill will last for years. Remember, wood is a natural substance and individual differences are normal from piece to piece. Depending on the specific piece of wood, the differences can be very subtle or in some cases can be quite dramatic.
Your Mapleseed Gallery spice mill is designed to be a great combination of art and function. Here are some general guidelines to help ensure that it stays looking and working great for years to come.
- Do use and enjoy your handcrafted spice mill
- Keep the mill out of water, direct sunlight, high humidity, and extreme temperature changes. Failure to do so may cause the wood to warp and/or crack
- Over time the natural oils in your hands will help to bring out a rich patina in the wood, however, to help protect your spice mill it is recommended that you periodically wipe down the exterior wood surface with a good quality food grade cutting board oil/wax
- Do not use vegetable oil to treat your spice mill as they will go rancid over time. Instead use an oil that contains food grade mineral oil and beeswax (other non-toxic food safe ingredients are OK too, but make sure that there are no added chemicals or solvents). We recommend Mapleseed Gallery Wood Cream (www.spicemills.ca/woodcream).
- Your spice mill should never be immersed in water. Should cleaning be required, use a warm lightly dampened cloth, towel dry immediately, and follow previous steps to oil/wax the wood surface (Also see full cleaning instructions below)
- When grinding peppercorns: Only use dry hard peppercorns, or combinations of peppercorns where the hard seeds are dominant
- When grinding salt: Only use dry salt crystals appropriate for grinding (wet/humid salt crystals will stick together and will clog the mechanism)
- When grinding other spices: Only use dry hard spices, or combinations of dry hard spices
How to Clean Your Mill
Like any other kitchen tool you should treat your grinder with care and clean it periodically.
Your spice grinder will build up spice dust on the inside wall of the grinder. Make sure to clean the inside wall frequently.
There are 2 easy ways to clean your CrushGrind® grinder:
1. Clean with salt
- It is easy to clean the grinder for residue - simply by grinding coarse salt. This will clean the ceramic grinding stone built into the grinder, as well as the the removable ceramic cone.
- We recommend to do this regularly.
- Some spices and blends are very oily, e.g. curries and garlic, nutmeg and paprika. These spices may clot inside the grinder. This can be partly avoided by adding a coarse salt in the spice mix.
2. Clean with a brush or water
- For a more thorough clean we recommend to clean the grinder by turning the grinder forth and back while keeping the grinder up-side-down. This way the chamber between grinding stone and cone is cleaned. Hereafter you can clean as follows:
a) Use a stiff brush
Unscrew the grey adjusting wheel completely and take the ceramic cone out. You will then see that the cone is filled with residue. Clean the grinder stone and cone with a stiff brush.
b) Clean with water
If this is not enough you can put the cone in warm water and the residue will dissolve. (Only the removable ceramic cone can be washed in water. Never use water to wash the inside of the mill or any wooden parts.
Please remember – ceramic parts need to dry completely before mounting and grinding again - the parts should dry for at least 24 hours!
Warranty
We’re proud of our spice grinders and offer what we think is the best warranty available today! Each Mapleseed Gallery spice mill carries an exceptional limited lifetime warranty against manufacturing and materials defect. Click here for full details.
Other Recommendations
We recommend Mapleseed Gallery Wood Cream with Organic Beeswax. Designed to help protect, revitalize, and beautify, this rich wood cream will give your spice mill (and all your kitchen woodenware) a beautiful satin lustre hand-rubbed look and feel. Use it regularly to care for your kitchen woodenware (e.g., wood bowls, cutting boards, butcher blocks, pepper mills, knife blocks, utensils . . . and much more).
Click here for more information about Mapleseed Gallery Wood Cream with Organic Beeswax.
