Freshly cracked pepper tastes a lot better than ground, and it adds a feisty touch to everything from potato chips to curry to steak. A good pepper mill is easy to use, efficient, comfortable to grip and fully adjustable, so the grounds come out powder-fine or truly coarse.

Manual pepper grinders are really the way to go. We did find some decent reviews for electric pepper grinders, but on the whole, chefs prefer manual models that are easy to grip and feel good in the hand. Plus, manual pepper mills don't need batteries.

Here are a few tips to choosing and using a pepper mill:

  • Pick your peppercorns carefully. Use a single type of pepper in your grinder; otherwise the flavorful compounds may combine to produce off flavors. Many chefs prefer the robust, complex flavor of Tellicherry black peppercorns, but there's a wide array of peppercorns available, and each has a unique flavor profile.
  • Clean carefully. Brush the grinding mechanism with a toothbrush and wipe down the mill itself with a mild cleaner or a damp cloth. Do not immerse your pepper mill, or its mechanism may rust.
  • Do not fill a pepper mill with salt, or a salt mill with pepper. The two types of mills have different grinding mechanisms, and salt may corrode the metal mechanism inside a pepper mill.
  • Read the manual. Most, but not all, pepper grinders can be adjusted to produce a finer or coarser grind by turning a small screw. You should experiment to determine how fine or how coarse a grind your mill can produce.
  • Disposable pepper mills are flimsy. While some jarred peppercorns come with built-in mills, the plastic components can break if the jar falls to the floor, and they don't grind uniformly, experts say.
  • You can crush peppercorns without a grinder. If you're stuck without a mill, you can crush peppercorns coarsely with the help of a heavy pot or a glass, but don't expect a uniform grind.

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