Let us get this out of the way right off the bat: a $200 pepper mill is an inherently ridiculous product. I mean actually, we’re talking about a machine built to convert dried berries (indeed, peppercorns are technically a stone fruit) into a powder you can sprinkle on meals. You can acquire a thoroughly good pepper mill for under $20 from brand names like OXO. Or if that’s way too a great deal, you can only get your pepper pre-ground (please never though) or choose for just one of people pre-crammed disposable grinders.
My issue listed here is that there are a ton of pepper mills that you should not expense two Benjamins and are more than able of acquiring the task carried out. But even so, I love my Pepper Cannon and since obtaining it, it really is swiftly develop into one of my absolute favourite kitchen gadgets.
Alright, now that I have roasted my overpriced pepper grinder, at the very least let me set up a protection. Even though I have generally hated the word, I’m form of a foodie, and during the pandemic cooking felt like a person of the number of pursuits that I could however enjoy while staying confined indoors. And supplied the spike in persons studying to make bread from scratch and all the social media food stuff tendencies about the previous two and a half several years, I’m plainly not the only one particular who feels this way.
So a even though again when I was hunting for strategies to enhance my kitchen devices, I stumbled on Männkitchen’s Kickstarter campaign for the Pepper Cannon. Like a lot of people today, at the time I was working with inexpensive pre-filled pepper grinders from the grocery store. But following cooking extra throughout the pandemic, I experienced come to be frustrated with how aggravating they are to use. Their very low-high-quality parts normally produced cranking the grinder feel like making an attempt to open a stuck pickle jar. And even when I was in a position to get a twist or two in, I was usually left with a coarse pile of pepper sand so tiny even Anakin could not obtain it irritating.
The even larger difficulty was that just after testing out plenty of designs in outlets, I under no circumstances genuinely located an improve that experienced the design and style or output I was looking for. A ton of pepper mills search like they were being designed out of a handrail from a pre-war brownstone. If that is your fashion, fantastic, but it won’t perform in my kitchen area. More importantly, I wanted a thing straightforward, strong and straightforward to use that makes it possible for me to adjust grind measurements though cranking out massive mounds of pepper.
Then came my blunder, mainly because right after discovering the Pepper Cannon, I forgot to again it in time to get the $50 off early chicken discount. $150 is continue to a great deal for a pepper mill, but it is damn guaranteed considerably less than $200. Thankfully, my wife is both of those thoughtful and encourages my silly obsessions, so previous yr, she bought me one particular for Xmas right after it went on sale for the vacations. And I can’t thank her ample, simply because in a ton of ways, it is really a fantastic present. It can be so high priced you are unable to truly justify buying it for oneself, but you still want it in any case, so you need to have an individual to give you a loving thrust.
So the moment once again, when its price tag is form of outrageous, the Pepper Cannon genuinely provides everything I desired and necessary. The detail is milled from a large piece of aluminum, it is really acquired an adjustable grinder with burrs manufactured from stainless steel, a one-touch major that helps make it tremendous very simple to refill and a built-in capture cup. Oh, and it definitely pumps out pepper. When I initially listened to about it, I believed contacting it a cannon was foolish, but soon after proudly owning just one for six months, it tends to make total feeling. Also, I ought to mention it is so hefty you may well even be equipped to use it to quit a house invasion.
At this issue, some of you could be asking yourself, who the hell requires THAT considerably pepper? It’s legitimate, this grinder appears to be like overkill. But nailing seasoning is a single of the greatest techniques to make improvements to your cooking, and I am keen to guess there are a lot of people who would be amazed how a great deal of a big difference an added sprinkle of salt or pepper can have on a dish. Luckily, salt is quick, as it isn’t going to attain significantly from being freshly ground. But pepper surely does, and as America’s Exam Kitchen attests, freshly crushed berries include a good deal of tasty volatile compounds that vanish from pre-floor stuff although it sits in a tin. So no matter of irrespective of whether I am making a spice rub or pumping out a pile of the excellent stuff for biscuits and gravy, it truly is genuinely wonderful to have a rapidly and trustworthy way to churn huge quantities of fresh black pepper.
That reported, I should really stage out that even a pepper mill this pricey ain’t best. The o-ring on the capture cup is a very small bit as well limited for my liking, nevertheless I suspect that will get far better as it breaks in over time. It’s also only accessible in black, which might not suit everyone’s kitchen area decor. And since it is really so damn high priced, I don’t definitely want to get a second one for white pepper or other spices. But those are genuinely the most minimal nitpicks, mainly because in every single other meaningful way, it is mainly my excellent pepper mill.
Actually, my even larger concern about getting a pepper mill this highly-priced will come from a scene from Fight Club. In some respects, spending a 5x top quality for a kitchen area gadget feels like a by-solution of a life-style obsession. No one needs the factors they possess to finish up possessing them. But then I recall, the lookup for a wonderful pepper grinder did not appear from a drive to set a trophy on my counter. It’s a way to enhance a passion I’m passionate about. Cooking is one thing I enjoy and ideally my household enjoys the outcomes. Confident, the Pepper Cannon is an extremely luxurious kitchen gadget, but it really is even now just a resource.
Clown on me all you like for thirsting after a top quality pepper mill (nevertheless there are a ton of cooks way superior than me who like it far too). But at the stop of the working day, every person has something they get overly enthusiastic about. Aside from, the actual joy comes from obtaining a kitchen area whole of instruments that will make cooking the two less complicated and extra exciting at the identical time. And preferably, which is what all superior gadgets should do, even if the Pepper Cannon is only a tiny aspect of a more time component record.