Salt and Pepper Mills – Coarse over the steak, fine into the sauce

Two wooden mills with an acrylic window, so you can see when they are running low. The grind adjusts steplessly from fine to coarse with a knob on the top. The pepper mill uses a steel mechanism and the salt mill a ceramic one, which salt cannot corrode.

Why grind at the table

Pre-ground pepper loses its aroma in the jar, and salt cakes in a humid kitchen. Grinding fresh is audible in the taste and takes two seconds. Wood also looks better standing on the table than a plastic shaker.

Stepless adjustment: from dust to coarse grain with one turn of the knob.
Steel and ceramic burrs: steel for pepper, ceramic for salt because it will not rust.
Acrylic window: you see what is left without lifting the lid.
19 cm tall: big enough to grip, low enough to leave on the table.
Lift-off lid: refills go in from the top without spilling.

Two mills that can stay out on the table instead of living in a cupboard.

Turn the knob clockwise for finer and counterclockwise for coarser, and set the pepper a notch coarser than the salt. Fill them with dry grains and keep damp herbs out, since those stick in the mechanism. Wipe the wood with a dry cloth rather than holding it under the tap.