It’s only recently that I’ve appreciated just how potent fresh ground pepper is relative to the pre-ground stuff. Apparently it has to do with the oils in the peppercorns housing most of the flavor, and these particular oils dry up really quickly in the ground stuff. I had a tiny pepper mill the size of a regular shaker that I’d been using, but I figured it was time to invest in something a little more heavy duty. When I had a lot of pepper to grind, that small mill would make my hands cramp up after a few minutes of grinding.
I headed out to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and purchased this Pepper Ball:
It was functional, and I was happy for awhile, but it still couldn’t bulk grind the pepper like I wanted to. And the repeated squeezing motion felt like I was using a grip exerciser.
That got me thinking about design, and in particular, my iPod. One of the biggest advantages of the iPod’s interface vs. every other MP3 player out there is that you can scroll through long lists without lifting your thumb off the controls. I decided I needed a pepper mill with a crank, if I wanted to be able to grind pepper in the quantities I desired. I hopped on Amazon.com and bought this:
Much much better. I can pepper my steak in a few seconds with this when with previous methods it was taking a minute or two. Yet another example of how using the right tool for the job can cut a previously time consuming job down to nothing.
