Types of household mills
The purpose of the mill is to grind solid ingredients into flour. Using this home appliance, you can easily grind any cereal for baby food, prepare powdered sugar, and chop nuts. There are both manual and electric home appliances on sale. Among manual equipment options, as mentioned above, the most common one is a spice mill. You can buy it together with spices (then it will be disposable) or separately (reusable devices). An electric mill differs from its manual counterpart in greater productivity. Depending on the target orientation of the devices, several types are distinguished:
- coffee grinder;
- electric spice mill;
- flour grinder
Any of these grinding machines is easy to use and does not require special skills.
Which spice grinder is best to buy?
Modern spice grinders come in two types:
- disposable – plastic or glass containers with a ready-made set or one spice;
- reusable – functional devices with the ability to individually select the components needed for a dish.
The latter, in turn, can be divided into mechanical (manual) and electrical. The design of both types of these kitchen gadgets is the same: a container for spices, a millstone and a container for the finished product. The only difference is that grinding can require effort from the housewife or eliminate this little effort.
In any case, when choosing chalk, you need to pay attention to a number of criteria:
Housing material
Models with a glass or plastic body are cheap, lightweight, but rather fragile. Wooden ones have an attractive appearance, but can absorb odors. Stainless steel mills are durable and practical, but they are often quite heavy.
Millstone material
Ceramic grinders are ideal for grinding coarse salt and grind small spices well. Moreover, they serve for about 5-7 years. Metal millstones must have two rows of teeth for high-quality and waste-free grinding of larger spices. The service life of such models is 10 years or more.
Grinding coarseness adjustment
In inexpensive mills, two options are possible - coarse and fine; in expensive ones, the number of grinding levels reaches up to six. This criterion is important for true gourmets and professional chefs.
If you are using a grinder exclusively for peppers, a single container model will do. But for several spices and salt, it is better to choose a universal grinder with two compartments and two pairs of millstones.
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Equipment for grinding grain at home
A household electric grain mill is a small housing with a reservoir for supplying the product, inside which there is a motor that drives the millstones. The body can be made of impact-resistant plastic or expensive wood. Millstones can be metal, corundum-ceramic, basalt, corundum or natural granite.
Some models of flour grinders can be additionally equipped with a conditioner, with the help of which you can obtain flakes from grains for making porridge at home.
Some devices may be equipped with convenient backlighting. Almost all devices allow you to adjust the degree of grinding:
- rude,
- medium - small,
- minute.
The operating principle of an electric grain mill is simple: rotating knives (millstones) grind the grain into flour, which is separated from the chaff through a strainer and poured out through a spout into a substitute container. To suppress noise and prevent slipping, manufacturers equip devices with rubberized body parts.
Depending on the blade material and design, an electric burr mill can be universal, suitable for grinding grains, cereals, legumes, nuts, oak bark, herbs and many other solid products. This device is also suitable for coffee. There are also specialized flour mills designed exclusively for preparing flour from non-Pancake grains.
How to choose a grain mill
To buy the right unit, you need to focus on your needs. A universal grinder is suitable for grinding various solid products. If the quality of the resulting flour is important, then it is better to choose a flour milling model. Also, when choosing, you should pay attention to the motor power, since the performance of the device depends on it. The ability to grind the hardest grains, such as corn, peas and other legumes, is possible with mills with a power of 360 W or more. An important aspect of the choice is the material from which the mill body is made.
For example, a body made of natural wood is considered environmentally friendly, and wood imparts a pleasant aroma to flour.
The Russian market is largely represented by universal options for electric mills in the budget segment. Prices range from 1,500 to 8,000 rubles. It is more difficult to find a high-quality and inexpensive flour grinder, and the price for such models is significantly higher (5-6 times). Even if you order such a device on the Aliexpress online trading platform, the purchase will cost no less than 15-20 thousand rubles. But such a device with a body made of high-quality beech, linden, pine or other wood with millstones made of natural stone is almost eternal. This is a good investment in healthy nutrition for households and their descendants.
Choosing an electric spice mill
It has been known since ancient times that freshly ground spices give dishes an incredible aroma and taste. Pepper, coriander, cloves and other spices can be ground at home using modern devices: the industry produces special household manual and electric grinders. Electric models can be powered by mains power, rechargeable batteries, or regular replaceable batteries. Battery or battery-powered spice grinders are suitable not only for home kitchens: they can be used in country and camping conditions.
To make spicy seasoning using an electric device, no effort is required, unlike using a manual analogue.
Electric salt and pepper mills are usually small in size. The device is a body, usually in the shape of a flask, inside of which there is a motor, millstones and a container for collecting the crushed spicy product. The ease of use of the electrical appliance and the quite affordable price for many housewives became the determining factors for purchasing such an assistant, because ground spices from store-bought bags are significantly inferior in aroma and taste to freshly ground ones.
When choosing a device, you should pay attention to the case materials. According to user reviews, the best option for grinding seasonings is a stainless steel mill. The material is durable, odor-neutral and gives the product a presentable appearance. An important element in the device is the millstone. To grind spices, knives made of high-strength plastic, stainless steel and ceramics are used. Plastic knives can be found in budget models. They are short-lived - service life is about 5 years. Therefore, from the point of view of operation, it is preferable to choose a device with knives made of stainless steel or ceramics. But the price of such devices will be higher. Prices for spice grinders vary from 700 to 6000-7000 rubles.
It is up to the buyer to decide which electric mill to choose for their home, focusing on functionality, performance and price tag.
Electric spice grinder with light
Every year the number of household appliances that require manual effort is becoming less and less, and accordingly, those that have an electric drive are only increasing. Whether it’s good or bad, we’ll leave it outside the scope of this article :), we’re reviewing an electric spice grinder.
Somehow it happened that having ordered one white “salt shaker” I received two pieces for the same price - white and black. The mills arrived without any box, but well packed in bubble wrap:
The bodies of the mills are in the form of oblong cylinders and have a soft touch coating - they look very good. At the top there are silver buttons:
There are removable lids at the bottom that keep the remains of crushed products inside the container without dirtying the table surface when they are located vertically:
The covers have weak latches and are easily removed:
Mill size:
Weight:
Under the lower covers there is a grinding module with ceramic graters and an adjusting screw, which determines the size of the fractions of the crushed product:
The more tightly it is twisted, the finer the grind is as a result. The screw can be completely unscrewed:
There is also an LED, whose task is to illuminate the place where the product is being crushed. The backlight idea is, in general, useless, although someone may prefer to eat food in the twilight, then an LED will be in place 
In the central part of the body there is a transparent part made of acrylic to control the remainder of the crushed product:
To gain access to the internal structure and container, simply turn the top part relative to the bottom and remove it:
The compartment for four AA batteries is located in the upper part; after installing them, we put on a protective ring so that the batteries do not jump out when adding product:
The upper part with the motor and gearbox is removed and we get access to the container. The photo below shows the contacts that ensure the LED glows; if you want it to not work and waste battery power, you can simply rotate the black part of the body 180 degrees relative to the transparent one, the mill will work just like that. Metal shredder shaft:
The LED produces a fairly bright yellow light:
The button is spring-loaded and moves smoothly, but the rotation speed does not depend on the degree of pressing:
The mill bodies can be swapped with each other, resulting in a “domino” effect:
Let's test it with the classics: coarse salt and pepper:
The filling hole is not very large. I won’t say that falling asleep is very convenient, but it’s quite acceptable; very few people wake up:
After taring the scales along with the lower part of the mill body, I added salt. A little more than 70 grams came in. The pepper from the bag was all filled up, and there was still room left:
When the screw is fully tightened, the output fraction of salt and pepper is quite fine:
And here is the coarsest grind:
Naturally, the more tightly the screw is tightened and the finer the grind is needed, the slower the machines make it. For coarse grinding per portion (subjective, of course), it is enough to hold the button for about 5 seconds, for fine grinding - 10-15 seconds.
Here is a comparison of salt grindings: on top - unground/finest/largest, below - grinding with the screw in the middle position:
Pepper:
In general, a very interesting and quite affordable option for spice grinders. Made with high quality, nice appearance, you can get the grind size to suit your taste. I bought it here. After two weeks of use, I have not yet been able to drain the batteries, although of course, now a built-in battery would be a more fashionable solution, but then the price would be higher. Alternatively, you can purchase universal 1.5 volt rechargeable batteries here or here
