Vintage Mills and Grinders

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Mills and grinders designed to pulverize everything from coffee beans to peppercorns are staples of a well-stocked kitchen. Vintage hand-cranked mills and grinders are often as effective as new ones, which means they can be passed down to...
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Mills and grinders designed to pulverize everything from coffee beans to peppercorns are staples of a well-stocked kitchen. Vintage hand-cranked mills and grinders are often as effective as new ones, which means they can be passed down to generations of home cooks. The coffee grinder is perhaps the most recognized type of food mill, having been invented in the Western world in the 17th century. Coffee grinders manufactured since the 19th century include home-use, box-type devices that can transform whole beans into fine or coarse grounds to brew just a few cups of coffee, as well as commercial wall-mounted or countertop machines designed to grind pounds of beans for customers. Sought-after box-type brands, usually made of wood with cast-iron hardware funneling grounds into a wooden drawer, include Kenrick & Sons of England, Peugeot Frères of France, and Imperial in the United States. Among commercial machines, those made by Enterprise Manufacturing of Philadelphia are quite collectible. Despite years of service in grocery stores, used examples of these wall-mounted or tabletop grinders are often sold in full working condition, whether their handles were mounted on the sides of these machines or attached to flywheels. Collectors gravitate to vintage Enterprise grinders from the turn of the last century, especially those crowned by eagle finals or mounted on decorative cast-iron stands, are most desirable. Another type of grinder is the meat grinder, whose invention in the 19th century is credited to Karl Drais—the German nobleman is also responsible for an early bicycle and typewriter. In the United States during the 20th century, hand-cranked meat grinders attached to counters with a clamp, were made by companies such as Universal, Best Made, and, not surprisingly, Enterprise. Spice grinders range from pepper mills as long as baseball bats, so that obsequious waiters can dust pepper onto a diner's salad from a different zip code, to diminutive...
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