Best Electric Salt and Pepper Grinders
The right salt and pepper grinders can make cooking a breeze
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Humble salt and pepper grinders don’t get much attention, but the right ones can offer a surprisingly elevated cooking experience.
The Osmo Rechargeable Electric Salt & Pepper Grinder Set is the easiest to fill, use, and hold of the sets we tried. The mills are battery-operated via a rechargeable lithium battery. The mills have a single white LED light that shows how much charge remains—when it starts flashing, it’s time to recharge with the included USB chargers.
Once you fill the compartment (which is quite easy, given the wide build) and lock the top on, a simple press of a button starts the grinding.
During our evaluation, we found that the grind is immediate and creates even particles. There are six grind settings, from small to coarse, which allow you to tailor the seasoning to your preference. We appreciated the ergonomics of this grinder set: The mills are easy to hold and lightweight. They’re also quiet and come with a special brush for cleaning cracks and crevices.
Note: We did not evaluate the gift box that comes with this set.
The Sweet Alice grinders operate differently from other sets we’ve tried. When you invert them, as you would with a manual pepper grinder, the mill automatically starts up. They have soft, lovely LED lights that beam toward the area you’re seasoning. And the high-volume reservoir is attractive, too: You can see right inside the mills. They look especially great with pink sea salt and multicolored peppercorns.
We appreciated the even grind, even on course settings, and found it to be quite easy to fill.
The Sweet Alice is one of the most difficult of these grinders to clean, though. It also doesn’t have labeled settings; instead, you can click through a number of them to see gradual differences. This is less exacting, although you can definitely tell whether you’re getting coarse or fine.
The Cole & Mason Battersea Classic Electronic Mill Set resembles mills you might see at a high-end restaurant when you ask for pepper on your dish. They have a large plastic window to see however much salt, pepper, or other spice are left in the chamber. They’re elegant and sleek, and they look wonderful on the kitchen countertop.
The set doesn’t come with the six AAA batteries you’ll need to use these grinders. The reservoir mouth is narrow, and thus harder to fill. And the lock/unlock graphic is a bit unclear, so it’s hard to tell whether the set is sealed. It does, however, produce an even grind and has a larger total volume than the Osmo. Like the Gravity, the Cole & Mason set has a number of unmarked settings. This set is also bulkier and louder than many other sets we evaluated.
The Ogednac Electric Salt and Pepper Grinder Set is less powerful than many of the other grinders we tried, with a 20-second lag between starting the mill and dispensing the product. The grind is very smooth, and the finest setting creates fine powder. It’s also quiet and easy to handle, especially for kids. And the kids loved the LED lights, which showed how charged the battery was and illuminated where the salt and pepper landed. But it’s hard to clean because the reservoir doesn’t detach from the mill.
How We Evaluated Salt and Pepper Grinders
A good set of salt and pepper grinders will have the following qualities.
Easy to fill: It’s ideal to avoid salt or whole peppercorns scattered all over the counter and floor. Thus, a good set of grinders will be easy to fill before use.
Easy to grind: A good set of electric grinders will have easy-to-identify LED lights or clear settings to help navigate the dispensing process.
Multiple grind settings: We preferred grinders with multiple grind settings that allow you to create smaller or larger seasoning bits, because different recipes benefit from different consistencies.
Comfortable to hold: A good set of grinders will be equally comfortable for people with big or small hands, and should come with a comfortable grip. My husband and I both tried each product and found there was very little difference in comfort, based on our hand sizes. But my 4-year-old son struggled to use the grinders that didn’t have good grips.
Attractive: Because these may sit on the countertop in clear view, it’s ideal that they be relatively attractive.
Not noisy: While not a deal breaker, we preferred grinders that were on the quieter side and worked quickly.
We used all four salt-and-pepper sets during a busy week at home, using each to cook at least two meals and season others. We evaluated for all of the above qualities, taking notes on our favorite aspects of the grinders.
Why Use Freshly Ground Salt and Pepper?
Freshly ground salt and pepper taste better, according to Brian Theis, a cookbook author and recipe developer. It also intensifies the flavor, which can make your food taste like it has more depth.
Yumna Jawad, a cookbook author and recipe developer, shares that this depth of flavor is because you are starting with unprocessed minerals or spices. Freshly cracked salt will have a more intense flavor, while freshly cracked black pepper will have a more aromatic flavor, both of which would be less noticeable if they were preground.
Unprocessed peppercorns will be large in size. Unprocessed salt will likely be irregular and coarse. White, finely textured salt has probably been bleached and processed. (Many brands include this information on their labels, too.)
“If you buy salt and pepper already ground, this freshness may otherwise have been lost to time and oxidation,” Theis says.
However, some high-quality, preground salts may taste as good, says Lior Lev Sercarz, chef and founder of La Boite, a spice atelier in New York City. He gives the examples of fleur de sel, gray salt, and smoked salt, which have unique flakes.
You can also use salt and pepper grinders for other spices, like whole coriander seeds or allspice. Jawad uses her grinder for dried herbs, like rosemary and thyme, to make them easier to use as seasoning.
“There is really no limit to what you can put in a grinder,” says Sercarz. But you need to make sure that you’re using items that aren’t too hard or too big to go through the burrs of the grinder. Most spices should also be toasted before they’re added to a grinder.
Theis recommends that you season by tasting your food as you add seasoning and spices throughout the cooking process. Add a bit of salt or pepper, then taste the dish. Do this over and over until you feel like the seasoning is just right.
