A Peppery Mess

tmalleman

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Los Angeles, CA
Please help me. My wife has begun to draw my attention to the layer of black pepper that surrounds the front burners of our stove after I’m done cooking. She concludes that I was being careless when I use the pepper mill over my eggs in the morning. I didn’t quite believe it, but I've tried to be more careful but she is still finding pepper on the stove.

So my question: is there something in the nature of pepper that would be causing this? Certainly, it seems lighter than salt, which makes me think the hot air above a frying pan might be displacing the pepper flakes from the frying pan.

Does that make sense? (FYI: no complaints about my use of salt, which I’m sure I deploy with the same shaking motion.)
 
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My best guess would be to do with the shape of pepper flakes verses salt granules. Even salt flakes (as in sea salt flakes) are broken up by a salt mill into denser heavier granules. Flakes are just that, less aerodynamic and more prone to fluttering rather than just falling. Add in a little direction from a flick of your wrist and they'll easily miss the pan.

So the options to me are
  1. Hold the mill closer to the eggs (risks involve burning wrists if this is a gas stove)
  2. Add salt and pepper before adding tbe eggs to the frying pan
  3. Add pepper after cooking the eggs with the stove off.
  4. Learn to clean up after yourself by wiping the stove down once you've eaten (giving the stove time to cool).
 
If I'm scrambling eggs, salt and pepper go I just before I pour them.

If I'm frying eggs, they go on both sides as they cook (usually over-easy).

If it's a boiled egg, they go on as I'm eating (sprinkle-bite-yum, sprinkle-bite-yum).

I use a pepper mill, and one thing I do notice, if I'm really cranking it, like I'm producing a lot of pepper, I will get a dusty pepper residue along my index finger and thumb, so there's obviously some pepper dust about.

I don't really notice it on the stove though, because after cooking anything, I always give the cooktop a quick wipe-down.
 
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We don't use a pepper mill. I grind pepper in the spice grinder, store it in an air tight container and sprinkle from my fingers when adding it to something in the pan. We've tried numorus pepper grinders, but none work properly no matter if they are cheap or expensive. Done given up and wasting money on them.
 
We've tried numorus pepper grinders, but none work properly no matter if they are cheap or expensive. Done given up and wasting money on them.
Curious. What is it thay has not worked?
I only ask because I've used them all my life and just last Christmas purchased some new ones which are in my view excellent. Hubby much prefers the new ones to the old ones. The old ones had started to give us problems but they were roughly 2 decades old.
 
We even have battery powered mills, but we both prefer hand turning. Wee ones like the battery power.....it's a novelty, like chilled water or ice from our fridge.

Russ
 
Curious. What is it thay has not worked?
I only ask because I've used them all my life and just last Christmas purchased some new ones which are in my view excellent. Hubby much prefers the new ones to the old ones. The old ones had started to give us problems but they were roughly 2 decades old.

None allow us to adjust the grind as advertised I can easily do that in the spice grinder. No more grinders for us.
 
None allow us to adjust the grind as advertised I can easily do that in the spice grinder. No more grinders for us.
Our new one had 5 levels (or 7, not sure ottomh) of grinding from a really fine grind to a very coarse grind. We've been pleasantly surprised by it tbh. The same with the salt though one or the other has 2 fewer levels than... but it was preferable to the old one which was controlled by a combination a screw on the underneath and how tightly you screwed the lid on up top. Problem was was that it migrated as you used it... hence its replacement finally. The new ones have a twist at the base into these predefined positions.
Ironically they are made by a company in the UK. So far so good, but it's early days yet in tbe history of us and s&p mills. Both previous sets lasted for more than 2 decades. We've only had these 7-8 months.
 
Our new one had 5 levels (or 7, not sure ottomh) of grinding from a really fine grind to a very coarse grind. We've been pleasantly surprised by it tbh. The same with the salt though one or the other has 2 fewer levels than... but it was preferable to the old one which was controlled by a combination a screw on the underneath and how tightly you screwed the lid on up top. Problem was was that it migrated as you used it... hence its replacement finally. The new ones have a twist at the base into these predefined positions.
Ironically they are made by a company in the UK. So far so good, but it's early days yet in tbe history of us and s&p mills. Both previous sets lasted for more than 2 decades. We've only had these 7-8 months.

I suspect the actual grinding gears and grain size adjustments in the ones we previously used were made in China. The company I work for has been buying replacement valve parts for high pressure air (6000 psi). These parts have been farmed out to Chinese manufactures and they are garbage! The previous US made parts lasted years. I'm lucky if the Chinese made parts last 3 months.
 
I'm easy-going. I set mine to a medium grind when I first got it years ago and haven't changed it since! :)
 
Our new one had 5 levels (or 7, not sure ottomh) of grinding from a really fine grind to a very coarse grind. We've been pleasantly surprised by it tbh. The same with the salt though one or the other has 2 fewer levels than... but it was preferable to the old one which was controlled by a combination a screw on the underneath and how tightly you screwed the lid on up top. Problem was was that it migrated as you used it... hence its replacement finally. The new ones have a twist at the base into these predefined positions.
Ironically they are made by a company in the UK. So far so good, but it's early days yet in tbe history of us and s&p mills. Both previous sets lasted for more than 2 decades. We've only had these 7-8 months.

We have about 3 sets, all are over 5 years old. And adjustable as you say at the bottom or by tightening the centre screw.

Russ
 
I suspect the actual grinding gears and grain size adjustments in the ones we previously used were made in China. The company I work for has been buying replacement valve parts for high pressure air (6000 psi). These parts have been farmed out to Chinese manufactures and they are garbage! The previous US made parts lasted years. I'm lucky if the Chinese made parts last 3 months.

I don't like buying Chinese goods......period.

Russ
 
I have used all these for getting pepper into my food. Occasionally I have also used a mortar and pestle to get a coarse grind of peppercorn. Just for the heck of it. It feels very old world and it's fun to make sure they don't jump out! About the peppery mess on the stove - well, it has to be wiped down.
 
I have s and p on the table, nothing sprinkled on the cooker.

Russ
I agree with you Russ, do it before it goes in the pan or after when it is on your plate. I don't like that mess all over my stove either. lol
 
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