Reuse a "disposable" spice mill

I've developed a taste for fresh ground pepper, but as someone on a low salary I don't want to buy an expensive pepper mill. Some spice companies sell peppercorns, sea salt grains, and dried spices etc. in neat little grinders, but you're not supposed to be able to refill them, which is a bit silly since you can buy bulk spices much cheaper from most supermarkets.

Step 1 Oops

My first attempt at getting the plastic grinder top off the glass container went badly. I tried to use a spoon to pry it off, wedging the end of the spoon into the lid and banging it on the table. It made some cracking noises, which I thought was glue. It turned out that I'd broken the rim of the glass bottle off.

Comments

[DaveNYC]

I prefer freshly ground spices too. Just one question - if the grinder parts are plastic, wouldn't the plastic eventually shred into the ground spices?

[doo da do]

I think you may be on to something. Free flavor and lots of chemicals included, no extra charge. Doodado

[reeding]

you are not supposed to think about that.

[doo da do]

We find all sorts of spices at the dollar store. Can't get much cheaper than that. I will try this when the next one goes empty. Doodado

[spawnos3717]

A few excellent choices for acquiring OTS grinders...Goodwill (or other thrift stores), freecycle.org, consignment shops, or other low cost/free donors such as manufacturers, restaurants, and swap meets, to name a few.

[callmeshane]

Actually...

There is a heap on how primitive people ground stuff.... like before they invented the power point and things.

TWO flat stones.

Hand made rotary mills.

Etc.

Sum Lynx.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/CMOC_Treasures_of_Ancient_China_exhibit_-_millstone_and_roller.jpg

http://www.sindoolaa.com/etamp.jpg

http://www.timespan.org.uk/media/images/stillgrinders.jpg

http://www.vegtv.com/images/MilletgrindBishnoi.jpg

http://www.travelswithsheila.com/mini-wmangrinding.jpg

http://www.birdsbyrandjack.com/NEPAL/KATHIMGS/imgMar24/T_01.jpg

http://ime.imb.org/lottiemoon/gallery/007093.jpg

And sumfing rooly educational... on water wheel driven mill stones.

http://www.angelfire.com/journal/millrestoration/millstones.html

I would not be surprised if once upon a time, that people actually WALKED to their friends places, or the shops, or to go fishing.

Perhaps, the may be some really easy ways to grind stuff, without the need to get the grinding device from a packet.

Ooooooooooooooooooooooo

[cfalkner]

ha ha ha, right on! ; D
"...people actually WALKED to their friends places, or the shops, or to go fishing."

[xenobiologista]

Geez, there's no need to be such a smart aleck. Of course there are a million and one ways to pulverize stuff, but what I'm aiming for here is CHEAPNESS plus CONVENIENCE. I'm planning to buy a small mortar and pestle at some point in the future for grinding herbs, but it would be really annoying to have to whip it out every time I wanted a bit of pepper on my food.

[kellz8688]

awesome!!!! tried it out !!!!!

[dasadler]

A good source for an inexpensive mortar and pestle would be at your local Asian food store. Here in Southern California, we have many of them that not only sell wonder selections of exotic fruits and vegtables but also many kitchen utensils, dishes, and small appliances. Great places to shop.

[callmeshane]

Nooooooo your upsetting yourself all over nuffin... I am just smart - pure and simple. I know how you feel tho, I get my empathetic monthlies from my boyfriend as well. Actually mortar and pestles.... well they tend to be fairly pricey... and you wouldn't want that. And while they are good for pharmacutical grinding, paint pigments, and really juicy food.. and all... I was thinking that the "two flat stones" may actually be a better overall grinder. The grinding tho' would if containment was an issue, be best done in a big stone with a shallow depression... Most of the "art of grinding" relates to contact pressure, and the "pestle" width and end radius. Soft herbs like tomatoes and basil go best with a wide, very low radius (almost flat) pestle, and hard things like pepper corns go best with a somewhat tighter radiused pestle and hard things like crystals and minerals go best with an almost pointy radius... The contact pressure and surface area ratio, determines both how the product works it's way under the pestle, and out from underneath it, - and the radius of the pestle and it's resultant contact area, also determines the crushing pressure. I have designed and made three pestles for my mortar to cover the median ranges of grinding. They give the best results in terms of speed and ende product. Damn I now have to go buy some man tampons for my empathetic monthlies. Cheers Shane

[I Hate Intructables]

Having a lot of these on hand encourages you to find interesting things to grind. I recommend exploring international markets. Annatto seeds from the Mexican grocery are my current favorite; they're the same size as peppercorns, so no pre-grinding is required. Imagine grinding wasabi peas over your mashed potatoes, or dried baby shrimp for soups!

[chuckr44]

Wasabi too hot! Hot hot hot! Spicy hot!

[RaNDoMLeiGH]

wimp! :p actually, wasabi isn't so much hot like peppers, but if you get too much it's definitely , er... (searches for word) zingy? zippy? like "phoo, right up my nose!" or WOWZERS! and then once your eyes stop watering, the entire sensation is gone. Not like peppers where it lingers and can actually cause chemical burns. A little wasabi sprinkled cautiously is a good thing. But it leads to a heavy wasabi habit. They sell the powdered stuff by the pound, just FYI.

[seraphale]

That wasabi sensation has always cracked me up! The first time it happened I heard a cartoon train whistle and thought the top of my head was going to explode, then *poof*, all gone! I might like to have a wasabi grinder...

[pwasniewski]

I had bought maybe half a dozen of these things before I decided to reuse them, and I've never had any problem with popping the top off to refill it--I've been refilling a course salt grinder every week or so for about three months, and I don't even have any reason to think that popping them off cold makes them break faster. You just need to hold the glass bottle firmly and pull the top straight off very hard; once you're applying the maximum force you can apply directly away from the bottle, angle just a little away from the central axis. POP. You just need to BELIEVE. I now use all my empties for other spices, and the tip about being careful about the size of the spice you put in there is solid; allspice is a little too big for the pepper mill, as well as coriander, but if you bust it up a bit, it will work--you just have to have a little patience when you're grinding it. I'd recommend using the mills with the adjustable grinder (little red tab on the side).

[tdoakes]

Totally True!!!!! I just popped off the top no problem! Hold TIGHT and then PULL and it will come off without having to heat it in the oven and all use a spoon and all of that! So much easier!

[thatkingcole]

BRILLIANT! 10 minutes was perfect, I just did it and so psyched! You can also use the tip of a potato peeler as the end is the perfect size and slightly curved. I am putting course sea salt and red peppers in mine. Thanks for the Instructable!

[HoldOnTight]

Xenobiologista, I like this 'ible because the prices of "off the shelf" grinders are way too expensive! You can get a grinder with salt or pepper for less! Practical, effective and re-usable!

[Christopher B.]

 The only problem I see is the hassle in heating it up every time to refill.  We have a LOT of these in our kitchen, and as some of them approach empty I'm thinking about things I'd like in them that the don't sell (like dried rosemary for my morning hashbrowns.)  I was hoping for some way to permanently mod the mill so that it could pop open when it was again empty.  I guess I'll just pull one apart and see how it's constructed, see if I can figure out a long term solution.

[Thav]

I just bought one of the McCormick adjustable grinders today that looks a little different than the one here. I was able to just grab the top and "break" it at an angle and the top popped off. Refilled with coriander I'd had sitting around for a while but could never use.

Trader Joe's has nice "disposable" grinders that actually have twist off tops. Very similar if not identical to the ones here:
http://www.global-grinders.com/index.html

[man ray]

i have tried these before but usualy it breaks and poured full pepercorns on my dinner i go with mcormicks

[mamaells]

thank goodness for this idea! now i won't feel guilty about buying those! good job!!

[callmeshane]

Yeah I went the same trip with the "one off" pepper mills currently available in my part of the world. The fixed mill design, for the grinding head, was actually very very good... the flutes feeding the corns in, the cutting teeth profile - everything ...to make a fairly consistent grade of coarse ground black pepper... The bummer was that the connectors that kept the core of the grinding head in place, were too few and insufficiently strong to carry the irregular torsional and axial loadings. So the core broke out... and that was that. There are two ways to "grind salt" one is to mechanically shear the crystals (fracturing), as in grind them.. the other way is to mechanically fracture the crystals.. by crushing or rolling them. If you want finely ground salt.. either buy it in bulk preground to ones favourite crystal size, OR buy a grinder - new or second hand, with all STAINLESS STEEL components and fittings. Actually.... if your mechanically inclined and can use a drill press....a set of stainless steel GEARS meshed with lots of slop would make an excellent grinder... But I guess it's the ratio of how much is your time actually worth, vs. the real cost of picking up the proper stuff in a shopping run, vs. the pleasure and enjoyment of being creative and doing neat fun little doo dahs... Anyway... making stuff is COOL. Hmmmm

[RaNDoMLeiGH]

I use a coffee grinder dedicated to non-coffee. Oddly, I prefer to buy my coffee already ground, although freshly ground coffee is a little tastier. But I don't want to mess with grinding the bloody coffee. I just want coffee, not a ritual. Just hand over the caffeine and nobody will get hurt. Not as cool as the in-bottle grinders, but I use a lot of herbs and sea salt and stuff, and it's much much cheaper to buy in bulk from the herb companies. Grinding them yourself means that more of the essential oil remains in the dried herbs longer. So I throw in my annatto and dried f*ing hot chinese chili pods and cloves and cumin, reduce it to dust, and voila have my spice mix for puerco pibil. Some coriander, cloves, cinnamon, fennel, mustard seed, and aswain and there's your basic masala spice blend. mmmm I do like the grinders, though -- my MIL gave me a nutmeg one and I use it all the time. Nutmeg is a major PITA so the grinder is fantastic. The oven is a good idea -- using a heat gun would work on the plastic but you might wind up with broken glass if the bottle isn't also heated evenly. Thanks!

[el eliel]

oo-oo! I know which gears to use! internal bicycle hubs! those nifty helical ones that once you take them apart and put them back together without the spec manual your wheel only rolls backward!

[RaNDoMLeiGH]

that would be one HUGE spice mill. Er.

[xenobiologista]

LOL, the hazards of DIY bike repair...

[rocktopotomus]

trader joes also sells pepper and sea salt in grinders which have screw off tops. down with mccormic's disposable grinders!

[I Hate Intructables]

I got some at Big Lots a while ago. $1 each, and filled with pepper! Only downside: The screw-on lids are made of cheap plastic, so they break if you twist too hard or in the wrong direction. I'm curious to know if yours from Trader Joes worked better.

[jlb2458]

thanks for the info-I love trader joe's.

[carpespasm]

Pretty neat idea. I'll give it a go some time. I love reusing disposable things that shouldn't within reason be disposable.

[Mr Criver]

Awesome! Believe me or not, I just 'finished' one of them disposable sea-salt grinders and I was thinking the same thing: popping the cap will be hard, maybe use heat. My thought was to use a blower (as used for removing old paint off of wood). This way you can monitor the temperature by heating-trying-heating-trying until it comes off. I'd be careful with the blower though since the airflow is *really* hot (you do not want to soften the cap to the point it starts melting, plus you don't want to burn your fingers). I looked for it here, because I figured someone had come up with this idea already. Nicely done!

[wildbill020202]

I was just doing it by brute force before. If you grab the top firmly, and bend it away ffom the glass it will separate on about the third try. This sounds much easier.

[Phoghat]

Walgreens Drug Chain (NE USA) sells sea salt in grinders 2/$2. The tops screw off, replace with spice of choice, enjoy>

[improvedjacky]

Thank you very much for the instruction. I have been wondering how I could do it because I love my disposable pepper grinder but I cannot afford to keep on buying them.

[yedjoyce]

Great post, but for me the reason to do this is because all the F#$%ing peppermills out there have the grinder on the bottom, OPEN, leaving a mess of pepper bits everywhere. I got the one with a twist to open that covers the bottom grinder is useless, you can;t tell how much you're grinding. I HATE THE PEPPER MESS!

[HypnoticFlux]

Sheesh! I was wondering how to remove the top recently from my emptied pepper grinder and after an hour I gave up. I so wish I had come on here a few days ago to see this! Thanks for figuring this out.. I'll have to try this next time!

[spylock]

Thats what I do,I use the disposable pepper mill to grind sea salt that I buy in bulk, because I dont have alot of cash either, although I do have a good pepper mill for my pepper,good tip.

[callmeshane]

Actually.,.... you could just go buy ONE or TWO really decent Pepper and or Salt mills, with ceramic or stainless steel grinding heads in them... They don't cost very much and if you get decent ones, you can have one set of refillable grinders for life.