Kitchen Tools - Spice Grinder

My kitchen is small. Tiny, really. So small that I need to consider each piece of equipment for it to warrant space. I have a coffee bean grinder, but not a spice grinder. Some people use the same type of grinder for both jobs, but have two – one for coffee and the other for spices. I just don’t have the cupboard or counter space for both. Since I grind coffee beans every day, it wins the appliance challenge. But I do like fresh ground pepper – and once a month, I grind fresh peppercorns in my coffee bean grinder.

But Julia, you ask, how do you keep the pepper from tasting like coffee? Because I clean the grinder first. And so I don’t electrocute myself, I need to clean the grinder with a dry cleanser – that is, no soap and water. The best tool: raw rice. I grind ¼ cup raw rice to a fine powder. I discard the rice and wipe out the basin. Voila! A clean spice grinder. I don’t bother cleaning in the other direction, because I rather like the idea of a little peppercorn in my coffee.

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