[Sca-cooks] Whole to ground spice equivalents

[Sue Clemenger]

I bought a spice grinder at one of my favorite local stores (Butterfly
Herbs), and bless it, it's tough enough to grind dried _galingale_ into
a powder, rather easily.  It's about the size of an ordinary pepper
grinder and the brand name is (maire scurries to the kitchen)...."Oxo."
The label says it's made in Master A's part of the world (NY, NY). It
was only $15 or so...and it's got this marvelous little container
attached to it...allows you to make custom-made herb/spice blends, and
then grind them fresh as you need it.  Has an adjustable head, so you
can vary the grind fineness, and a little cap you can use as a rough
measuring device.  I can run over to the store one of these days for
more info if anybody wants...

Hmmm...(maire runs back to the kitchen and snags a bit of cinnamon
stick). I just ground up a 2" cinnamon stick in it (had to mash the
stick a bit first to "chip" it) in a minute or so, and it worked just
fine.  Produced just about 1.5 teaspoons of ground cinnamon for the
whole 2" stick.  The smell is much nicer than my already ground
cinnamon--reminds me very much of the subtle difference between
pre-ground and fresh-ground nutmeg.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled Sunday afternoons.....;-D
--Maire

Bronwynmgn at aol.com wrote:
>
> --
> [ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
> In a message dated 3/31/2002 7:35:34 AM Eastern Standard Time,
> goldberg at bestweb.net writes:
>
> > ISTR learning (from Alton Brown, I think) that cinnamon is one of the
> > few spices best bought powdered, as it is nearly impossible to grind the
> > bark adequately at home. I could be mistaken, of course, but I'm sure I
> > heard that someplace.
> >
> >
>
> Hmm.  I was given, as a gift, a box containing real cinnamon chips and a
> little crystal container with a crank grinder.  Mind you, it doesn't powder
> the chips like commercial ground cinnamon, but it comes out about the
> consistency of coarse-ground pepper.  Of course, that may be more a function
> of the grinder than the cinnamon.