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450 points homebrewer | 6 comments | | HN request time: 1.256s | source | bottom
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dredmorbius ◴[] No.44367435[source]
One class of items not listed here, which I'd recently started to think might be less-than-optimal: pepper sold in jars with built-in, plastic, grinders.

I'd long since noted that as the jar emptied the grinders were increasingly ineffective. Thinking on why that might be ... I realised that this was because as you grind the pepper, you're also grinding plastic directly into your food.

There's surprisingly little discussion about this that I can find, though this 5 y.o. Stackexchange question addresses the concern:

<https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/103003/microplas...>

Seems to me that plastic grinders, whether disposable or sold as (apparently) durable products, are a class of products which simply shouldn't exist.

Searching, e.g., Walmart for "plastic grinders" turns up five listings presently, though it's not clear whether it's the body or the grinder itself which is plastic. In several cases it seems to be the latter.

<https://www.walmart.com/c/kp/plastic-grinders>

(Archive of current state: <https://archive.is/yIIX4>

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adriand ◴[] No.44370201[source]
I use a mortar and pestle (both made of stone) and would highly recommend it!
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1. fuzztester ◴[] No.44372011[source]
good option.

i like that too.

metal ones are also available in india, made of stainless steel and maybe other metals instead.

traditionally, people in india used a thick flat wide stone and a thick cylindrical stone grinder applied back and forth on top of the lower stone, to grind spices, onion, ginger, chilllies, turmeric, etc., into a paste or masala, which was then used in making curries, sambar, and other dishes.

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2. fuzztester ◴[] No.44372084[source]
here is an image of one such stone pair, not exactly what we had at home, but close:

https://www.natureloc.com/products/ammikallu-grinding-stone

also called aattukallu in tamil and iman dasta (iirc) in hindi or urdu, but searching for the latter only gave results for mortars and pestles, which are not the same thing as the one above, the ammikallu.

3. jodrellblank ◴[] No.44373111[source]
Traditionally grinding things with stone ended up with people eating stone which ground their teeth down[1]:

> "A. When soft stone like sandstone was used for milling grain, as the ancient Egyptians often did, residue from millstones could cause a serious problem over a lifetime, said Dr. Robert K. Ritner, associate professor of Egyptology at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Egyptian teeth have been well studied in mummies, and only the rare mummy had good teeth, said Dr. Ritner, who lectures on Egyptian medicine. ''They usually had heavy abrasion, and were sometimes so worn down at the crown that the pulp or even the root was exposed, which must have been horribly painful,'' he said. The Egyptians were obsessive about cleanliness, using a natural soda compound called natron for cleaning the mouth and sometimes a chewing reed to massage the teeth. They had few cavities, and the damage seen in studies pioneered by the English researcher F. Filce Leek almost certainly resulted from the residue of disintegrating millstones."

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/06/science/q-a-teeth-and-mil...

[2] https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-whole-grains-damage-you...

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4. fuzztester ◴[] No.44375233[source]
paywall for 1, nyt. I tried reloading the page a few times, but there was no effect. that sometimes did work earlier.

thanks. i can imagine, now that you say it. wonder if there were / are other bad effects too, like on other parts of the body.

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5. dredmorbius ◴[] No.44390225{3}[source]
Archive Today ... should be ... your friend. Existing archive was also paywalled, this recent resubmission may work:

<https://archive.ph/3EIHG>

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6. fuzztester ◴[] No.44393750{4}[source]
thanks, will check that out.