Cooking Resources

Daizymae · 10-20-2011, 12:46 PM

Maybe this has been discussed here in the past, but I am not good with using the "Search".

I would like a simple, manually operated, Nut and Seed Grinder that won't break down in a month's time.

Can anyone help me? Thank you so much.

gadzooks · 10-28-2011, 05:45 PM

Mortar and pestle. Ceramic. The problem with grinding nuts and seeds manually is that they contain oil, and that makes them soft enough once you get started to clog burr-type grinders like hand-crank coffee mills. If you are grinding nutmeats coarsely there are several good little hand operated grinders, generally having steel "fingers" on an axle with a crank. Some have glass jars incorporated into their workings to catch the pieces. Avoid such grinders with plastic "fingers." They are unreliable. But generally, for nuts and seeds, I recommend a ceramic mortar and pestle. They are inexpensive and readily available. For my own personal use, I have Kitchen Aid blade type coffee grinder with a removable stainless steel cup, and I also sometimes use the dry container on my Vita Mix.

Daizymae · 10-28-2011, 08:06 PM

Do you mean a good ol' suribachi? Mine broke after some years but it never occurred to me to use it for nuts, too. Tks. for replying!

gadzooks · 10-28-2011, 09:02 PM

Ummm, not exactly...I think a suribachi is made for grinding salt, but, yeah, that could work. I just think a ceramic mortar with a ceramic pestle might work better.

Daizymae · 10-29-2011, 12:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gadzooks

Ummm, not exactly...I think a suribachi is made for grinding salt, but, yeah, that could work. I just think a ceramic mortar with a ceramic pestle might work better.

I honestly don't know the original purpose for developing the suribachi, so I looked it up on gourmetsleuth. Well, things actually happened in reverse, ie, once this neat device was invented, the Japanese apparently liked it so much they developed dishes around it.

"The original use of the suribachi may have been to grind miso, and over the years many dishes were developed using the suribachi : goma-yogoshi (vegetables flavored with a sauce of seasoned, ground sesame), goma-miso (miso flavored with ground sesame), dengaku (sweetened miso sauce used to flavor toasted tofu), kinome-ae (dressing made with sansho sprigs), shira-ae (dressing made of tofu mixed with white sesame), tororo-jiru (grated tororo), tsumire (fish paste balls), denbu (shredded seasoned fish flakes) and kinoton (dumplings covered with ground sesame or soybean powder)." Source: (Translation by Nonaka Yuko, forthcoming in a joint English translation of Daidokoro no zukan, by Koizumi Kazuko, original publisher, Heibonsha,1998 )

Me, I ate a macrobiotic diet 30 years ago and one of the main condiments was "gomashio". You toast the sesame seeds in a frying pan til they pop, then mix them with salt in a certain proportion and grind them together with the wooden pestle called a surikogi till you have a lovely powder that you put on your rice or vegetables. How I miss this. Like so many things Japanese, they thought this one through.

justplainbill · 10-29-2011, 05:09 AM

The URL cited below provides a fair amount of info about nut, seed, and grain mills.
I prefer clamp-on to vacuum / suction cup mounting.
Grain Mills

Daizymae · 10-30-2011, 12:01 AM

That site with the various mills is full of good info. Thank you very much indeed, justplainbill. I would probably go for Weston Multi-Seed Grinder. It's relatively cheap and also clamp-on, as you recommend.

Have you ever shopped at that store?

I found a small grinder, I guess it's a meat grinder, at a charity store; and I tried to do toasted sesame seeds in it. What a mess. Totally plugged up and seeds everywhere. Just wasn't designed for that, I guess.

In general, I prefer manual to electric. How about you?

justplainbill · 10-30-2011, 05:58 AM

I've ordered several times from Fante's for hard to find items (eg a large British porcelain mortar & pestle and large wood spoons). I like to know the country of origin of the item that I'm ordering. We have an Oster electric meat grinder that I bought as a Christmas gift for my Grandmother 49 years ago and several manual grinders that we use for walnuts, almonds, and hazelnuts.