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Grinding your own spices

Fat Guy

By Fat Guy
in Cooking

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natasha1270

natasha1270

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I have a mortar & pestle but some spices give you a ridiculous arm workout (mainly I am talking about achiote/annatto).

The sumeet multi-grind mentioned earlier in this topic looks wonderful but I am hoping for a non-electric option.

"The main thing to remember about Italian food is that when you put your groceries in the car, the quality of your dinner has already been decided." – Mario Batali
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nakji

nakji

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Grinding your own spices is definitely worth the effort. I do it all the time for Indian dishes or for gingerbread.

Just make sure to not grind cloves in your electric coffee or spice grinder. They damage plastic. My grinder's lid (Braun) is now opaque and covered in clove oil residue which does not come off.

I ruined a mini chopper the same way! I have a small blender attachment that I use for spice grinding for curries right now; is there any advantage to investing in a spice grinder?

Erin Garnhum aka "nakji"

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natasha1270

natasha1270

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Chris,

I've recently started hand-grinding my spices for cochinita pibil in a mortar & pestle and the annatto takes forever. So last night I decided to take a trip over to W-S with a couple tsp to give it a try. I was so impressed! It made such quick work of the seeds. Probably a strong pepper grinder with a crank handle will do as good a job too but I didn't want to try it on my own pepper mill in case the seeds were to hard for the gears.

In my (limited) experience annatto is one of the hardest to grind, so I'm not sure about the reviewer having such a hard time with cloves & star anise. I think you would have to crush the larger spices in order to fit into the top of the grinder so maybe that is what they meant? Maybe another field trip is in order.

I think it would suit my needs except for the price. Size wise it is about the same size as a McCormick spice bottle.

N.

ps. I just realized... maybe you are supposed to soak/boil the annatto to soften first?

Edited by natasha1270 (log)
"The main thing to remember about Italian food is that when you put your groceries in the car, the quality of your dinner has already been decided." – Mario Batali
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