Nut butter/paste grinder

[peterm2]

Hi all,

I'm trying to figure out what grinder to get for making nut butters and pastes that are smooth as a baby's butt. The Sumeet has been recommended by Kerry Beal in this thread, but the smallest size has been out of stock for quite some time, and I've lost faith on it since he told me "100% it will be ready in June." My Cuisinart doesn't seem powerful enough to do the trick, instead turning hazelnuts into flour and no further, and I don't particularly want to break out the mortar and pestle unless necessary.

The goal is to make nut butters the same smoothness as commercial products, but without having to add oil to do so.

I've found a number of apparent alternatives here but don't know if they will be baby-butt smooth, and read enough of the return policy to be somewhat cautious of running out and buying one to see if it works. I won't be using this for commercial applications, so large capacity isn't necessary, and small footprint is preferred.

If any of you have experience with these brands or particular mixies, or if you have other ideas, your thoughts would be welcome!

[prasantrin]

What about a vita-mix? You could also just use a mortar and pestle along with some physical labour.

Some nuts are naturally less fatty, by the way, so to get a smooth product, you may need to add oil.

[edsel]

What about a vita-mix?

←

The dry container for the Vita-Mix works great for nut butters. The only downside is that it's a pain to get the stuff out of the container. The bottom of the Vita Mix container doesn't unscrew, so there's lots of scraping with a silicon spatula, unless you don't mind wasting quite a bit.

[peterm2]

The dry container for the Vita-Mix works great for nut butters. The only downside is that it's a pain to get the stuff out of the container. The bottom of the Vita Mix container doesn't unscrew, so there's lots of scraping with a silicon spatula, unless you don't mind wasting quite a bit.

←

The other options looked a little more attractive, because they're significantly cheaper and easier to get paste out of. I don't have much use for a Vita-Mix for its other functions, currently.

Edited August 11, 2009 by peterm2 (log)

[andiesenji]

For small batches, the best "appliance" is a hand-cranked food mill/meat grinder.

I just skimmed through ebay and found this one that has a Nut Butter blade.

That is the blade that looks solid. That particular blade is difficult to find for any grinder.

The grinder looks to be in excellent condition. The price is right. - They do not take returns, but at that price who would quibble.

I've purchased other vintage items from Freeman's and have always gotten good service.

Edited August 11, 2009 by andiesenji (log)

[andiesenji]

I can no longer edit my previous post so am adding this follow up.

In this topic i posted photos of the grinders I have with the nut butter dies so you can see how they appear.

In the 1920s and '30s there were three or four manufacturers of these grinders who included the nut butter die as part of the basic unit. After the beginning of WWII they sold the units with only two or three dies and reworked all of the models (#1 was small and they went up very large) so the walls were thinner to reduce the amount of iron required.

If you get one that has the nut butter die included, it is pre-war.

[peterm2]

I can no longer edit my previous post so am adding this follow up.

In this topic  i posted photos of the grinders I have with the nut butter dies so you can see how they appear.

In the 1920s and '30s there were three or four manufacturers of these grinders who included the nut butter die as part of the basic unit.  After the beginning of WWII they sold the units with only two or three dies and reworked all of the models (#1 was small and they went up very large) so the walls were thinner to reduce the amount of iron required.

If you get one that has the nut butter die included, it is pre-war.

←

Thanks for finding that for me. I'll give one a try and see how it goes! Hopefully that and my coffee grinder together can also handle my dried chiles.

[andiesenji]

I can no longer edit my previous post so am adding this follow up.

In this topic  i posted photos of the grinders I have with the nut butter dies so you can see how they appear.

In the 1920s and '30s there were three or four manufacturers of these grinders who included the nut butter die as part of the basic unit.  After the beginning of WWII they sold the units with only two or three dies and reworked all of the models (#1 was small and they went up very large) so the walls were thinner to reduce the amount of iron required.

If you get one that has the nut butter die included, it is pre-war.

←

Thanks for finding that for me. I'll give one a try and see how it goes! Hopefully that and my coffee grinder together can also handle my dried chiles.

←

The food grinder will work nicely on dried chiles but here is a valuable hint:

Steam the chiles rather than soak them to rehydrate them. I use that method when I prepare sambals.

I have an inexpensive electric steamer that I use constantly to rehydrate dried fruits and vegetables and especially chiles.

You can also steam nuts that have been stored in the freezer for extended periods and have become sort of freeze-dried. I recently used this method successfully with some almonds that had migrated to a bottom back corner.

[peterm2]

Thanks for the hint. I haven't tried it yet, but will soon.

The grinder seems to work well at first pass - much finer than anything I could get out of the Cuisinart. It tackled whole peanuts reasonably well, but next time I'll spin them through the Cuisinart first to make the grinding a little easier. I'm also looking forward to trying it on my vanilla beans to try to make some paste.

Thanks again for the help, and for liberating me from Sumeet Customer Service.

[Spring]

I made some pecan nut butter yesterday and because the nuts were a bit dry and I've never done it before and I did it wrong (didnt grind nuts and sugar before putting in the santha so it clogged)I panicked and added oil, too much oil, so now its runny. I made it to mix with chocolate for gianduja. Is it too runny for that? If so can I use it for something else? I thought that if its too thin for gianduja I could add more nuts and sugar to thicken it.

Any advice?

Thanks

[kitchenspecialist]

You can try CocoaT mini pregrinder from cocoatown.com. It grinds the nuts into a nice paste. It comes with two jars - small jar can grind upto one cup of nuts. You can see the CocoaT mini pregrinder at this youtube video - it made chocolate powder from cocoa nibs in less than a minute.

CocoaT mini pregrinder is easy to use and clean. It is also grinds very fast. Stainless steel jars are hygienic. Wire cord stores inside the storage compartment at the back. The two jars store nicely on the base unit for a compact, space saving storage. It is also very affordable at 149.99

You can also use CocoaTown melanger if you are grinding larger quantities of nuts. Just chop the nuts in the mini pregrinder and grind it in the melanger. It makes a very nice paste. If you want to add sugar, first grind the nuts into a nice paste and then add the sugar and let it grind for some more time. It is available from cocoatown.com

Edited May 27, 2011 by kitchenspecialist (log)

[bague25]

I have recently brought this grinder. It's more powerful compared to a Sumeet (750W instead of a 550W).

I live in Belgium, so it's a 220V but it's also available in 110V.

I have used this to make spice pastes, chutneys (including nut chutneys) and for grinding grains. I find it really impressive. I have not used the juicer attachment and I've read that it's not too efficient.

[IEATRIO]

I have been thinking of getting a wet grinder, and one of the applications for which I hope to use it is to grind pistachio into paste.  Does anybody have any experience with this and if so can you recommend a good value wet grinder?