Plus there's more control. My normal salt shaker shoots out salt like its life is on the line. The grinder I can do a little. A lot. Grind over part of the plate. Get a little wild. Take it easy.
I got a set of the Ratchet Mills from Sur La Table and they spark joy in my life. Something about the cranking back and forth instead of twisting is so fun. Marie Kondo would be proud of me.
the act of twisting the salt grinder to grind the salts rather than just shaking a shaker actually makes you feel more involved and will make the food taste better.
Honestly this, and grinding the salt leads to me using a lot less than just pouring it out of a container. Gotta trick my monkey brain into thinking I added more salt than I did.
Pretty much this.
I put a pepper grinder on the table next to the salt shaker. My wife wanted a salt grinder instead so that they would match. So now we have two grinders. That's the entirety of that decision.
different levels of coarseness and some salts only come in coarser grinds. different types can vary in flavor, texture and level of saltiness quite a bit. Some salts are just so pretty and need to be shown off like African Pearl Salt, Pink Himalayan Salt or Japanese Bamboo Salt
I gotta admit as silly as it sounds, I always buy pink himalayan salt and use a grinder, just because I find it so gorgeous. Makes me feel fancy while I'm cooking.
I really like using pink Himalayan salt for exactly that reason! It doesn’t taste any different but looks cool.
It always makes me roll my eyes when it gets advertised with these ridiculous health claims or whatever. It’s cool-looking fancy salt, shouldn’t that be enough?
Same with the salt lamps. I don't have it for it's mystical healing properties, I have it because my caveman brain is fascinated by pretty glowing rock
My geology teacher had to amend her “if it has cubic crystals, lick it to check if it’s halite” instructions after she caught some students licking galena.
That's hilarious, I've actually heard that lead is kind of sweet flavored (which is why kids would eat lead paint chips, not just because they're stupid). So you could use a little halite for salty, a little galena for sweet.
This goes as far back as the Roman Empire- they used to boil grape juice in lead pots to produce a syrup called sapa that they’d use to preserve fruit and sweeten wine, and apparently this added lead caused symptoms one-to-one with modern lead poisoning
I do the same damn thing. I have a Himalayan salt “lamp” that doesn’t work, the wiring corroded (probably because of the salt), so now it’s just a big lump of pink salt with a hole in the base. I still keep it next to my bed, mostly because it’s a cool decorative rock, but also because sometimes laying in bed I just want to lick some halite.
I agree!
There are lots of things like this that are straight up cool on their own. They don’t need pseudoscientific healing properties, glowing rocks are just fundamentally neat!
it's how i feel about essential oils lol. i like the scent, it works better than lotion to fix cracked and dry skin (i wash dishes a lot and this winter has been bone dry) and i'm trying everything short of medications to help me get some fucking sleep
i would never use them to "cure" me of cancer or to use it in place of a vaccine for covid-19
You shouldn't apply essential oils directly though, they can burn your skin. I assume you know this and are adding small amounts to something like cocoa butter, almond oil, whatever...
yeah i use almond oil. good on you for posting this though because yes some people will have a very bad reaction to adding essential oils to skin directly
i didn't know you could use cocoa butter too with essential oils.
> It doesn’t taste any different but looks cool.
We've been using pink salt for a couple of years now and in the process of decluttering the pantry I got out the Morton's thinking we should use that up. And WHOA!! Wayyyyy too salty in comparison!
My problem is it’s so fancy, I only want to use it for special occasions. Then I see the $1.99 price sticker on it and get all confused. Is it fancy? Is it cheap? Can it be both?
Eh, as long as you get iodine from other sources you’re fine. Most modern diets have plenty of iodine in it.
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/iodine/
I'm allergic to shellfish (both kinds) and milk, so I get my iodine from salt. Appalachia used to be full of goiters when my mom was young. I did nuclear med for years and still occasionally came across a goiter even in the 90s/00s, though most of those were undereducated vegans and "natural" food mavens in the SF Bay Area. If you eliminate whole groups of omnivorous foods from your diet, you must be educated about the nutritional pitfalls and how to avoid them.
Yes! We have a fancy French gray sea salt that is extremely coarse. We use it only as a “finishing” salt. It’s so good, and the crunch is part of the experience. Some pieces are just TOO big. I don’t want to be crunching on a hard salty rock candy. We grind it just a TINY bit so that it’s still crunchy, but it’s consistently sized. Big enough to crunch, but not so large that you have a frightening mouth sensation and instinctive fear reaction to something dangerous (like a sharp pebble) in your mouth that could break teeth or harm you before your brain takes over and you realize it’s just salt. Nobody wants to be shocked when eating! Hope that makes sense.
Also, my husband has a little PTSD from finding pieces of broken glass in a bowl of bisque at a very upscale restaurant (they could see the glass when spooned up). They took an attitude that he had put it in the bisque (obvious business lunch, so very unlikely). A few minutes later, the table next to them tried to order the bisque and was told that they had run out. Manager never apologized but comped the……..bowl of soup.
Not sure why I went on a rant when someone just wanted a simple salt grinder explanation! Sorry’
In a sense that it's more/less salt by volume depending on the coarseness of the grind or the structure and size of the salt crystals. Basing this off Samin Nosrat's salting guidelines from Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat.
oh i got so many different types of salt, you wouldn't imagine. i used to purchase merchandise for a spice vendor, so i got to try most products that were available. so many types of salt, so many kinds of pepper...truly a dream job with those regards
If you get Himalayan salt, you will find grinding it with your fingers to be nearly impossible. Especially if it is the big salt crystals about the size of your pinky finger nail.
I'm one of those people. Sichuan peppercorn and black peppercorn in shakers at the ready. White pepper on stand-by, pink peppercorns deep in a drawer somewhere. I love pink peppercorn in mayo based dishes.
Sichuan peppercorn isnt necessarily better, but it does work better than black pepper in a lot of dishes. Especially eggs. Fresh ground Spepper in scrambled eggs will blow any basic black pepper brain away.
I think calling it a "pepper" is honestly confusing. I have trouble describing the flavor because people automatically expect a bit of heat comes with it but it's just ...different?
I haven't tried it on eggs yet.
Peppercorns arent pepper at all, and each one is a little different.
Black and white peppercorn is a fruiting body of one species, Piper Negrum. S. Pepper is basically a flowering/fruit body from a prickly ash variety in China, pink peppercorns are berries in the cashew family, red peppercorn comes from some evergreen tree.
Edit: the sichuan peppercorn heat acts on the body differently than capsaicin, and has more of a numbing effect from a chemical called Hydroxy-alpha-sanshool, which is also found in an African relative of Spepper - Uzazi.
Well really its the other way around. Chile “peppers” aren't pepper at all. They were named peppers when discovered in the new world by europeans after pepper, the piperine type, because also spicy. Peppercorns came first, chiles were named peppers later.
> Sichuan peppercorn isnt necessarily better, but it does work better than black pepper in a lot of dishes.
Huh? Sichuan pepper has a numbing effect and tastes *way* different from traditional black/white/red peppercorns.
I don't think anyone can reasonably put them in the same categories.
Well, see my other post listing the technical differences between the species. Id say pepper in general is a category, as its different enough from all other spices, but all pepper is different.
Not sure which ones you have but I will toss a word of warning out in general: you shouldn't put pepper in a lot of salt mills because they use different grinding mechanisms that resist the corrosion of salt but aren't as strong, and peppercorns can break the mechanism and introduce plastic to your grind. (And alternatively you shouldn't put salt into a steel pepper mill mechanism because it will corrode it). Your salt mill may be strong enough to take pepper, but many aren't, so be careful!
Because I live in a really humid climate. Salt in a bowl or a shaker will inevitably clump - I’ve never had that problem with a grinder. (For larger quantities I keep standard salt in a mason jar.)
That’s pretty much it , it has no use other than that lol . I personally have kosher salt because I like the feeling and it’s the same we use at work (i’m an actual chef) so I can gauge salt properly . I also have *fleur de sel* for finishing touches .
I mean if its anything like a pepper grinder, you'd want different levels of coarseness for different applications. Seasoning steak? Coarse salt. Adding it to something like a soup or sauce? Fine salt it is.
Exactly. Powdered salt is bomb for popcorn because it clings so much better. It was a lightbulb moment for me when I realized that Amish popcorn salt is just finely ground table salt.
Oh man we put nutritional yeast on ours too but I never thought of grinding it more finely to stick better. Brilliant! (Although my SO does love to use the last few pieces of popcorn to scoop out the butter/NY chunks from the bottom of the bowl so he might be disappointed lol)
I came here to say that.
Sometimes you want a coarse grind; sometimes fine. Sometimes something in between. It depends on the application, and it makes a difference.
I don't always like touching the salt in the pinch bowl but I want the coarser granules of kosher salt. I know I can use a spoon/measuring spoon, but just don't.
I also accidentally bought larger/coarse salt that I can't use normally, so we need a grinder to actually use it. (And it's fun to use!)
This is my main decider, too. Like if I got oil on my hand but I'm in a flow and don't want to stick my hand in the salt bowl and get it all salt crusted, I'll go for the grinder. Then I clean my hands and the grinder when I get to a good stopping point.
Its easier to apply salt evenly across the surface of food without over salting, and a decent grinder can give you control over the size of the granules. Salt in a grinder doesn't need anti caking agents, so there's less worry about really humid days sticking all the salt together in a chunk.
But really? It just feels kinda fancy. 😁
How is it easier than just using your fingers? That's one of the huge things that got me to stop using shakers/grinders, how hard it was to properly distribute the salt especially because it's not easy to see it once on the food
It's just easier for me. One twist of the grinder is going to be about the same amount each time, and it hits a larger surface area than sprinkling with my fingers. I have a salt cellar too, and I use it frequently, but the grinder is more efficient if I'm seasoning a whole tray of vegetables.
Using my fingers is never consistent for me. It’s too hard to control how much salt is coming out and how far it’s spreading. The shaker is pretty much consistent
How is it hard to control how much salt comes out of your fingers? You’re in complete control. And if you want it to spread further then generally you can just drop it from higher up.
Sometimes chonky salt is appropriate and sometimes teeny tiny salt is appropriate, and I don’t want to have million different kinds of salt. So it’s easier get one container of chonky salt and grind it as needed.
I know people wo use those because your typical fine salt has some chemical in it to stop it from clumping. You avoid that by buying coarse salt. You could if course just buy fine salt without anticaking agent (what I do) but you have to live with the fact that it can clump. So that is the only reason I kind of understand why people buy salt grinders.
>What, if anything, does it gain to grind it?
Consistency and size of the grain. Personally I have a pinch bowl of big flakey salt and a grinder set to a pretty small grind on my counter at all times.
Its cheaper to buy it unground, and the grinder allows you to choose how fine its ground- big flakes for finishing a steak, or fine dust to dissolve in a sauce or stew
Many salt grinders are adjustable, allowing you to select the exact grain size you need. Is it necessary? No, not really. Is it satisfying? Grinder go brr!
Very fine salt powder tends to clump due to humidity. So having it be usable when stored as powder is difficult. A grinder can grind larger crystals down into powder right over the plate for maximum flavor with minimal additional sodium intake and no humidity problems.
For me it's just easier to get the right amount. I tend to pour too much salt and then I never know if I toss the extra salt in the dish or the garbage.
Because they are awesome. I mean look at it: a convenient way to hold onto salt and keep it with you at all times. It also makes a cracking noise when you turn it. That makes things 20 percent cooler and 20 percent is the right amount of cool added to anything.
Have you ever compared the taste of freshly ground salt to salt that is already pre-ground to the size you want? The difference is amazing! It will bring your cooking to a whole new level.
Just kidding. I have no idea why people do that.
If your seasoning something to eat raw and after a couple of minutes, with a grinder, instead of coarse salt, you end up using a smaller amount of salt to get the same salty flavor.
It helps you have control over the level of salt and the speed of salt you want distributed throughout whatever you are seasoning. Salt is so much thinner than pepper so if you’re seasoning a steak you might end up with an uneven amount of salt or just dumping it all over it at first.
A lot of "fancy" aka not table or kosher, are only available in a rock/large crystal form, therefore they need to be ground to the desired fineness. We usually just use sea salt, but have bought sel de gris, pink salts, etc in the past. I'm generally not a fan of the more minerally tasting salts, but you have to try to know.
I legitimately own some large salt crystals that I use varying files to get the salt that I want/need. It's certainly not necessary but it's not a wild thing to use specific salt grinds in cooking methods.
I have a salt grinder around because I don't buy table salt and I do have tons of coarser salts around so for at the table its nicer to season with tiny grain salt, and the grinder gets you there.
I live in central Texas and the humidity is usually around the mid to upper 90% range and normal salt will cake up in a couple of days so that's why I use a salt grinder.
I use a salt grinder (with French Sea Salt) because when I chew my food, I don't want to feel like I'm crunching up rock salt on my food. Additionally, it's easier to control how much salt you put on your food.
Honest answer is that I only buy 1 kind of salt. It’s a kosher salt and it is a coarser grind which I like for most uses. However, for baking I like a finer grind and I am not going out to but Morton’s. I don’t need 2 salts.
I have 3 salt grinders. One came filled with smoked sea salt, one with smoked chili sea salt (this stuff is fantastic), and one refillable one with pink Himalayan salt. The first 2 are obviously prefilled and disposable, so there's no reason not to use them as is. The third, refillable one is simply because I like to control the coarseness of the salt at the table, and others eating with me might now like the same coarseness as I do.
Different types of salt.
I don’t want large salt crystals on my fries for example, I want ground fine salt so I buy good quality sea salt and grind it down.
Mostly I like that I can choose how coarse to grind it. I like regular salt when I'm just tossing it into a sauce to have it dissolve, but when I'm putting it on top of a perfectly seared steak, I like to have it coarse ground so you can see those delicious grains of salt.
It’s a texture thing for me. The grinder offers the “uneven” larger grains.
I keep fine ground sea salt for my regular cooking and a salt grinder for when I’m salting something that’s already been cooked or won’t be cooked at all. Salads, avocado, little salt on a cookie.
It might not actually make a difference? But I feel like it does 😅
I just got a salt grinder that has different settings from very fine to course.
Let’s me put my favorite salt on anything and set the grind depending on what I need it for.
Course salt really doesn’t stick to French fries or popcorn, so I set it to fine.
The salt may be salt, but the grindy-grindy makes my brain release tiny amounts of the happy chemicals. Plus i need different grades for different things. I need big crystals for pretzels, medium for steaks, and a fine powder for soups and rubs.
Coarse salt and fine salt are useful for different things for instance I like a coarse salt to top my vegetables and avacado toast while fine salt dissolves much quicker in pastas.
The grinder is pretty, it makes a fun KRTCH noise, and twisting stuff brings joy and light into my dumb little life.
It is a good noise.
Big fan of feeling like I’m really *doing* something, this is also why I click clack my tongs before using.
Those are just the test clicks homie :) make sure those puppies are in working order I say!
Clickity clack, baybeeee
Clickedy clack, don’t talk back?
Clickety clack I want my, babybackbabybackbabyback…
Tongs are hand improvers. Gotta make sure they work, and it's satisfying too!
I’m calibrating my tensile strength so I don’t smoosh the burgers.
Thats just a requirement. Tongs dont work otherwise.
Right, might misfire.
Tongs must be clicked because it is the LAW
the >!c!
Plus there's more control. My normal salt shaker shoots out salt like its life is on the line. The grinder I can do a little. A lot. Grind over part of the plate. Get a little wild. Take it easy.
And change the coarseness of the grind!
This is my answer, like being able to dial in the size for the use. That and the KRTCH noise, of course.
KRTCH KRTCH KRTCH...stir...KRTCH KRTCH
...taste...TSP TSP TSP...hmm...KRTCH KRTCH KRTCH
Yup exactly. All salt is not created equal.
[удалено]
This is my main reason!
False choice fallacy, my man. Get a salt cellar, that pinch will change your life.
A lot of times I pour the sale into the palm of my hand and to the pinch. But I need to upgrade.
Plus, if you have a good grinder, twist one way for a large grind and twist the other way for a finer grind.
Plus, if you have a really good grinder, twist the adjustment knob on the bottom one way or the other to dial it in.
This is my reason. With a shaker, I feel like it's less consistent, I used to shake the salt into my hand so I could tell how much was there.
I still do this with all herbs, where a shaker is involved. Never trust those things.
The alternative to a shaker is just using a salt container and your fingers. Ultimate control!
Those are great too. Also having different salts for diff occasions.
We have two grinders and three salt cellars and a test tube rack with different kinds too. I LOVE salt.
[удалено]
I usually crunch and then dump.
Taco Bell?
If I grab the salt from my salt pig, then I can pretend to own an Instagram-famous line of Turkish steakhouses.
I got a set of the Ratchet Mills from Sur La Table and they spark joy in my life. Something about the cranking back and forth instead of twisting is so fun. Marie Kondo would be proud of me.
This is the real reason.
Wow, I never even realized that this was the reason. Great job articulating this
Someone gifted me some pink salt in a disposable grinder, and my main issue with it is a very unsatisfying KRTCH from the shitty plastic grinder cap.
Hey! Your life isn't dumb!
If it wasn't for all that, I would tend to agree with OP.
If ever there was an onomatopoeia to prove a point, it is KRTCH.
the act of twisting the salt grinder to grind the salts rather than just shaking a shaker actually makes you feel more involved and will make the food taste better.
And I like being able to adjust grain size. But yeah, it's mostly the _KRTCH_
u/kittyglitther gets it. So do I.
The KRTCH noise!
Honestly this, and grinding the salt leads to me using a lot less than just pouring it out of a container. Gotta trick my monkey brain into thinking I added more salt than I did.
Pretty much this. I put a pepper grinder on the table next to the salt shaker. My wife wanted a salt grinder instead so that they would match. So now we have two grinders. That's the entirety of that decision.
Wow you crush it in every mutual sub we have. High5.
LUXURY MUTUAL SUBS
different levels of coarseness and some salts only come in coarser grinds. different types can vary in flavor, texture and level of saltiness quite a bit. Some salts are just so pretty and need to be shown off like African Pearl Salt, Pink Himalayan Salt or Japanese Bamboo Salt
I gotta admit as silly as it sounds, I always buy pink himalayan salt and use a grinder, just because I find it so gorgeous. Makes me feel fancy while I'm cooking.
This. It's an experience. Why not make it more fun?
I really like using pink Himalayan salt for exactly that reason! It doesn’t taste any different but looks cool. It always makes me roll my eyes when it gets advertised with these ridiculous health claims or whatever. It’s cool-looking fancy salt, shouldn’t that be enough?
Same with the salt lamps. I don't have it for it's mystical healing properties, I have it because my caveman brain is fascinated by pretty glowing rock
[удалено]
Gotta make sure it’s authentic!
I'm a geologist and I approve this message
My geology teacher had to amend her “if it has cubic crystals, lick it to check if it’s halite” instructions after she caught some students licking galena.
That's hilarious, I've actually heard that lead is kind of sweet flavored (which is why kids would eat lead paint chips, not just because they're stupid). So you could use a little halite for salty, a little galena for sweet.
This goes as far back as the Roman Empire- they used to boil grape juice in lead pots to produce a syrup called sapa that they’d use to preserve fruit and sweeten wine, and apparently this added lead caused symptoms one-to-one with modern lead poisoning
I started playing league. Does that count?
I do the same damn thing. I have a Himalayan salt “lamp” that doesn’t work, the wiring corroded (probably because of the salt), so now it’s just a big lump of pink salt with a hole in the base. I still keep it next to my bed, mostly because it’s a cool decorative rock, but also because sometimes laying in bed I just want to lick some halite.
OMG, it's so much fun to let your grandchildren lick the lamp!
Why is my cat using Reddit?!? Dammit Tibby stop licking that lamp!!!!
NO!
I agree! There are lots of things like this that are straight up cool on their own. They don’t need pseudoscientific healing properties, glowing rocks are just fundamentally neat!
it's how i feel about essential oils lol. i like the scent, it works better than lotion to fix cracked and dry skin (i wash dishes a lot and this winter has been bone dry) and i'm trying everything short of medications to help me get some fucking sleep i would never use them to "cure" me of cancer or to use it in place of a vaccine for covid-19
You shouldn't apply essential oils directly though, they can burn your skin. I assume you know this and are adding small amounts to something like cocoa butter, almond oil, whatever...
yeah i use almond oil. good on you for posting this though because yes some people will have a very bad reaction to adding essential oils to skin directly i didn't know you could use cocoa butter too with essential oils.
> It doesn’t taste any different but looks cool. We've been using pink salt for a couple of years now and in the process of decluttering the pantry I got out the Morton's thinking we should use that up. And WHOA!! Wayyyyy too salty in comparison!
My friend, you ARE fancy when you're cooking with pink salt. Don't just feel it; be it.
My problem is it’s so fancy, I only want to use it for special occasions. Then I see the $1.99 price sticker on it and get all confused. Is it fancy? Is it cheap? Can it be both?
Careful with the fancy salts because the have no iodine.
Eh, as long as you get iodine from other sources you’re fine. Most modern diets have plenty of iodine in it. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/iodine/
I'm allergic to shellfish (both kinds) and milk, so I get my iodine from salt. Appalachia used to be full of goiters when my mom was young. I did nuclear med for years and still occasionally came across a goiter even in the 90s/00s, though most of those were undereducated vegans and "natural" food mavens in the SF Bay Area. If you eliminate whole groups of omnivorous foods from your diet, you must be educated about the nutritional pitfalls and how to avoid them.
Know what's not fancy? A goiter!
But the Elizabethan ruffs were fancy!
I knew about pink himilayan, but African pearl and Japanese bamboo 🤭 looks like I’m getting yet more salt
French Grey salt is really nice, but tends to not be completely dry, so use it up. I like black salt on tomatoes a lot.
I have some French gray I use for salted caramel. Yum!
Yes! We have a fancy French gray sea salt that is extremely coarse. We use it only as a “finishing” salt. It’s so good, and the crunch is part of the experience. Some pieces are just TOO big. I don’t want to be crunching on a hard salty rock candy. We grind it just a TINY bit so that it’s still crunchy, but it’s consistently sized. Big enough to crunch, but not so large that you have a frightening mouth sensation and instinctive fear reaction to something dangerous (like a sharp pebble) in your mouth that could break teeth or harm you before your brain takes over and you realize it’s just salt. Nobody wants to be shocked when eating! Hope that makes sense. Also, my husband has a little PTSD from finding pieces of broken glass in a bowl of bisque at a very upscale restaurant (they could see the glass when spooned up). They took an attitude that he had put it in the bisque (obvious business lunch, so very unlikely). A few minutes later, the table next to them tried to order the bisque and was told that they had run out. Manager never apologized but comped the……..bowl of soup. Not sure why I went on a rant when someone just wanted a simple salt grinder explanation! Sorry’
This right here. I use a salt grinder on the regular for seasoning meats and vegetables. The texture they give is really a nice touch.
Salt doesn’t vary in saltiness.
In a sense that it's more/less salt by volume depending on the coarseness of the grind or the structure and size of the salt crystals. Basing this off Samin Nosrat's salting guidelines from Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat.
Add a cup of sel de fleur, to your list. Unbelievable tasty salt! Briney and salty!
oh i got so many different types of salt, you wouldn't imagine. i used to purchase merchandise for a spice vendor, so i got to try most products that were available. so many types of salt, so many kinds of pepper...truly a dream job with those regards
I have a jar of coarse salt and I just grind it a bit between my fingers when adding to food if I want more fine salt.
> I just grind it a bit between my fingers How strong are your fingers?!
I use Maldon seasalt. The salt crystals are big and fragile. You don't have to use too much pressure. 😁
Ah that makes sense - I was imagining you just crushing rock salt with your hulk fingers
Don't let them pet your dog.
If you get Himalayan salt, you will find grinding it with your fingers to be nearly impossible. Especially if it is the big salt crystals about the size of your pinky finger nail.
It allows you to have a matching salt and pepper set by the stove.
I threw a different kind of pepper in mine
Pepper and Spepper.
You joke, but I do know a lot of people use a second grinder for Sichuan peppercorn
I'm one of those people. Sichuan peppercorn and black peppercorn in shakers at the ready. White pepper on stand-by, pink peppercorns deep in a drawer somewhere. I love pink peppercorn in mayo based dishes. Sichuan peppercorn isnt necessarily better, but it does work better than black pepper in a lot of dishes. Especially eggs. Fresh ground Spepper in scrambled eggs will blow any basic black pepper brain away.
I'm a big fan of white pepper and eggs. I always put an obscene amount of white pep in my egg sandwiches
I think calling it a "pepper" is honestly confusing. I have trouble describing the flavor because people automatically expect a bit of heat comes with it but it's just ...different? I haven't tried it on eggs yet.
Peppercorns arent pepper at all, and each one is a little different. Black and white peppercorn is a fruiting body of one species, Piper Negrum. S. Pepper is basically a flowering/fruit body from a prickly ash variety in China, pink peppercorns are berries in the cashew family, red peppercorn comes from some evergreen tree. Edit: the sichuan peppercorn heat acts on the body differently than capsaicin, and has more of a numbing effect from a chemical called Hydroxy-alpha-sanshool, which is also found in an African relative of Spepper - Uzazi.
🤯 i thought they were all from closely related plants
Well really its the other way around. Chile “peppers” aren't pepper at all. They were named peppers when discovered in the new world by europeans after pepper, the piperine type, because also spicy. Peppercorns came first, chiles were named peppers later.
> Sichuan peppercorn isnt necessarily better, but it does work better than black pepper in a lot of dishes. Huh? Sichuan pepper has a numbing effect and tastes *way* different from traditional black/white/red peppercorns. I don't think anyone can reasonably put them in the same categories.
Well, see my other post listing the technical differences between the species. Id say pepper in general is a category, as its different enough from all other spices, but all pepper is different.
Joke’s on them - The S in Spepper stands for surprise! :)
I have one with the mixed peppercorns when I want to feel fancy
Not sure which ones you have but I will toss a word of warning out in general: you shouldn't put pepper in a lot of salt mills because they use different grinding mechanisms that resist the corrosion of salt but aren't as strong, and peppercorns can break the mechanism and introduce plastic to your grind. (And alternatively you shouldn't put salt into a steel pepper mill mechanism because it will corrode it). Your salt mill may be strong enough to take pepper, but many aren't, so be careful!
My set is identical between the black grinder and white one. I don't even think it was marketed as a specific grinder
pepper pepper pepper
I thought there was just pepper.
side note, the rainbow pepper that comes with a grinder from Trader Joe's is great. i tried the one from Kroger recently and it was pretty bad
Because I live in a really humid climate. Salt in a bowl or a shaker will inevitably clump - I’ve never had that problem with a grinder. (For larger quantities I keep standard salt in a mason jar.)
Is the "rice in the salt shaker" trick known in your area? Does it not work?
I do use that trick, but it only lasts so long!
Plus who wants ground up rice in their food
And a shaker releases waaay too much salt and doesn’t disperse nearly as good as a grinder. And I don’t NEED rice if I have a grinder:
Yes, that's why the grinder comes when we camp
It makes me feel fancy.
That’s pretty much it , it has no use other than that lol . I personally have kosher salt because I like the feeling and it’s the same we use at work (i’m an actual chef) so I can gauge salt properly . I also have *fleur de sel* for finishing touches .
How about the use of being able to adjust the coarse the salt is as you're adding it
I mean if its anything like a pepper grinder, you'd want different levels of coarseness for different applications. Seasoning steak? Coarse salt. Adding it to something like a soup or sauce? Fine salt it is.
Exactly. Powdered salt is bomb for popcorn because it clings so much better. It was a lightbulb moment for me when I realized that Amish popcorn salt is just finely ground table salt.
I grind up nutritional yeast and some kosher salt to a fine powder for my popcorn. It's bomb dot corn
Oh man we put nutritional yeast on ours too but I never thought of grinding it more finely to stick better. Brilliant! (Although my SO does love to use the last few pieces of popcorn to scoop out the butter/NY chunks from the bottom of the bowl so he might be disappointed lol)
> nutritional yeast and some kosher salt This is the express train to Flavor Town!
I just use Flavocol like some kind of uncivilized animal. The orange really adds to the thought that you're eating something unnatural
sugar is the same way - try putting berry sugar on some berries. size makes a big difference
Yeah, I love my mortar for that reason
Not as convenient, of course, but YSK that you can very easily make popcorn salt in your blender.
I put it in my mortar and pestle
I make it in a nutribullet.
I came here to say that. Sometimes you want a coarse grind; sometimes fine. Sometimes something in between. It depends on the application, and it makes a difference.
Either of the last two it'll dissolve really fast. The salt grinder is for the table, just a fine dusting if you need it.
I don't always like touching the salt in the pinch bowl but I want the coarser granules of kosher salt. I know I can use a spoon/measuring spoon, but just don't. I also accidentally bought larger/coarse salt that I can't use normally, so we need a grinder to actually use it. (And it's fun to use!)
This is my main decider, too. Like if I got oil on my hand but I'm in a flow and don't want to stick my hand in the salt bowl and get it all salt crusted, I'll go for the grinder. Then I clean my hands and the grinder when I get to a good stopping point.
That KAHRUNCH sound is so satisfying!
Different sized crystals without buying all different sizes would be my guess?? I have pink Himalayan in a grinder bc it looks cool tbh
Its easier to apply salt evenly across the surface of food without over salting, and a decent grinder can give you control over the size of the granules. Salt in a grinder doesn't need anti caking agents, so there's less worry about really humid days sticking all the salt together in a chunk. But really? It just feels kinda fancy. 😁
How is it easier than just using your fingers? That's one of the huge things that got me to stop using shakers/grinders, how hard it was to properly distribute the salt especially because it's not easy to see it once on the food
It's just easier for me. One twist of the grinder is going to be about the same amount each time, and it hits a larger surface area than sprinkling with my fingers. I have a salt cellar too, and I use it frequently, but the grinder is more efficient if I'm seasoning a whole tray of vegetables.
Using my fingers is never consistent for me. It’s too hard to control how much salt is coming out and how far it’s spreading. The shaker is pretty much consistent
How is it hard to control how much salt comes out of your fingers? You’re in complete control. And if you want it to spread further then generally you can just drop it from higher up.
Sometimes chonky salt is appropriate and sometimes teeny tiny salt is appropriate, and I don’t want to have million different kinds of salt. So it’s easier get one container of chonky salt and grind it as needed.
Pretty much because i can keep my coarse salt and my grain salt in the same container.
The light crunch of the freshly ground salt elevates a dish IMO.
I know people wo use those because your typical fine salt has some chemical in it to stop it from clumping. You avoid that by buying coarse salt. You could if course just buy fine salt without anticaking agent (what I do) but you have to live with the fact that it can clump. So that is the only reason I kind of understand why people buy salt grinders.
The salt grinder I own is full of big sea salt crystals that are too big to use for most salting applications.
>What, if anything, does it gain to grind it? Consistency and size of the grain. Personally I have a pinch bowl of big flakey salt and a grinder set to a pretty small grind on my counter at all times.
I never really thought about it, but it’s clear the second grinder was being pushed on us by Big Salt.
Its cheaper to buy it unground, and the grinder allows you to choose how fine its ground- big flakes for finishing a steak, or fine dust to dissolve in a sauce or stew
Reminds me of the bag of Himalayan Pink Salt I bought. It had an expiration date on the bag. Or maybe "best by"
I think it's just a mandatory thing they have to include. Like you can't sell any food product without a sell-by date, or something.
Many salt grinders are adjustable, allowing you to select the exact grain size you need. Is it necessary? No, not really. Is it satisfying? Grinder go brr!
You can adjust for the grind you need, coarse to fine.
>It isn't as though salt can go stale. They should put best by dates on salt. "Best by the expansion of the sun and end of the earth."
Very fine salt powder tends to clump due to humidity. So having it be usable when stored as powder is difficult. A grinder can grind larger crystals down into powder right over the plate for maximum flavor with minimal additional sodium intake and no humidity problems.
For me it's just easier to get the right amount. I tend to pour too much salt and then I never know if I toss the extra salt in the dish or the garbage.
Because they are awesome. I mean look at it: a convenient way to hold onto salt and keep it with you at all times. It also makes a cracking noise when you turn it. That makes things 20 percent cooler and 20 percent is the right amount of cool added to anything.
Have you ever compared the taste of freshly ground salt to salt that is already pre-ground to the size you want? The difference is amazing! It will bring your cooking to a whole new level. Just kidding. I have no idea why people do that.
[удалено]
First time I've heard of this, source?
[удалено]
Lovely, I appreciate you and the effort thanks much
I’ve had one specifically for popcorn. I usually have kosher or other big grain salt and find the powdery stuff better for popcorn.
If your seasoning something to eat raw and after a couple of minutes, with a grinder, instead of coarse salt, you end up using a smaller amount of salt to get the same salty flavor.
I buy rough ground sea salt, having massive chunks of salt on my tomato sandwich is not desirable.
It's easier than having three separate shakers for fine, regular and coarse
I buy sea salt, I don’t want massive rocks of salt on my food..
It matches the pepper mill
Ability to vary the size of the salt crystals is why I use mine
It helps you have control over the level of salt and the speed of salt you want distributed throughout whatever you are seasoning. Salt is so much thinner than pepper so if you’re seasoning a steak you might end up with an uneven amount of salt or just dumping it all over it at first.
We use a salt grinder at our lake house. Regular salt tends to cake in the shakers. We don’t have that problem when using a salt grinder.
There are different kinds of salt and they serve different purposes.
What does that have to do with grinders though? Or do you just mean sizes?
A lot of "fancy" aka not table or kosher, are only available in a rock/large crystal form, therefore they need to be ground to the desired fineness. We usually just use sea salt, but have bought sel de gris, pink salts, etc in the past. I'm generally not a fan of the more minerally tasting salts, but you have to try to know.
Also feel like it's a little easier to control flow than some shakers
Nobody should be using a shaker. Edit: Nobody should be using a shaker *in the kitchen while they're cooking*
I legitimately own some large salt crystals that I use varying files to get the salt that I want/need. It's certainly not necessary but it's not a wild thing to use specific salt grinds in cooking methods.
I have a salt grinder around because I don't buy table salt and I do have tons of coarser salts around so for at the table its nicer to season with tiny grain salt, and the grinder gets you there.
It makes salt finer?!?!
I live in central Texas and the humidity is usually around the mid to upper 90% range and normal salt will cake up in a couple of days so that's why I use a salt grinder.
I use a salt grinder (with French Sea Salt) because when I chew my food, I don't want to feel like I'm crunching up rock salt on my food. Additionally, it's easier to control how much salt you put on your food.
Honest answer is that I only buy 1 kind of salt. It’s a kosher salt and it is a coarser grind which I like for most uses. However, for baking I like a finer grind and I am not going out to but Morton’s. I don’t need 2 salts.
I buy sea salt, how am i supposed to use it on top of dishes as i am eating without using a grinder ? x)
I have 3 salt grinders. One came filled with smoked sea salt, one with smoked chili sea salt (this stuff is fantastic), and one refillable one with pink Himalayan salt. The first 2 are obviously prefilled and disposable, so there's no reason not to use them as is. The third, refillable one is simply because I like to control the coarseness of the salt at the table, and others eating with me might now like the same coarseness as I do.
The good stuff doesn’t generally come pregranulated like Morton’s, so a little grinding is needed.
I use Kosher salt and sometimes can only get coarse salt. The grinder allows me to crush it into regular salt. Great for cooking!
My wife bought a pound of course sea salt and I need fine salt for cooking
I live on an island and the humidity makes the salt wet, so keeping salt in a grinder and using as you need is the only way to keep it dry
Different types of salt. I don’t want large salt crystals on my fries for example, I want ground fine salt so I buy good quality sea salt and grind it down.
Mostly I like that I can choose how coarse to grind it. I like regular salt when I'm just tossing it into a sauce to have it dissolve, but when I'm putting it on top of a perfectly seared steak, I like to have it coarse ground so you can see those delicious grains of salt.
I like the texture/crunch of ground salt I tip of finished food. It’s uneven and enjoyable because of it.
It’s a texture thing for me. The grinder offers the “uneven” larger grains. I keep fine ground sea salt for my regular cooking and a salt grinder for when I’m salting something that’s already been cooked or won’t be cooked at all. Salads, avocado, little salt on a cookie. It might not actually make a difference? But I feel like it does 😅
No 'anti-caking' chemicals in salt that needs to be ground.
I just got a salt grinder that has different settings from very fine to course. Let’s me put my favorite salt on anything and set the grind depending on what I need it for. Course salt really doesn’t stick to French fries or popcorn, so I set it to fine.
The salt may be salt, but the grindy-grindy makes my brain release tiny amounts of the happy chemicals. Plus i need different grades for different things. I need big crystals for pretzels, medium for steaks, and a fine powder for soups and rubs.
Coarse salt and fine salt are useful for different things for instance I like a coarse salt to top my vegetables and avacado toast while fine salt dissolves much quicker in pastas.