I haven’t had a pepper mill in a long time. The last one was an acrylic thing that broke too soon, and I never replaced it because I could never find anything that looked convincingly more robust. When I heard that Peugeot supposedly makes the world’s best pepper mill, the promise of once again enjoying the aroma and flavor of freshly ground pepper at home more or less turned this into an impulse purchase. Their mills looked pretty well made and are mostly made of solid wood so they’re also nice to look at.
Made in France, these pepper mills come in a lot of different sizes, woods, and finishes. I ended up selecting the 5 inch (12 cm) model. Go a size down and the part that you turn to grind the pepper is a flattened cylinder with less surface area to grip on to than the 5 inch model. The one I have has the same overall shape as the one in the photo, but is made from a different type of wood, and does not appear to have any plastic components near the base like product photos of the one linked seems to show.
I found a nice looking old model that seemingly had never been used and bought it second hand. In my quick search of the different options out there, I noticed that some Peugeot mills have more plastic internal parts than others. I made sure to select one with few internal plastic parts, especially one where the grinding mechanism looks like it is entirely metal. Mine has a plastic piece holding the shaft in horizontal alignment like the one pictured does, but otherwise it doesn’t look like there is any other plastic inside. I’m not crazy about the fact that the shaft looks like it probably contacts the plastic piece as it’s turned, but it wasn’t a dealbreaker for me.
To use the mill, you fill the wood chamber at its base with peppercorns. This requires disassembling it, which is easy to do. You just unscrew the metal piece at the top, lift off the round piece that turns the grinding shaft, and pour in your peppercorns. These mills are supposed to be specifically designed to grind peppercorns, but it doesn’t matter what type of peppercorn you use. Once it’s reassembled, you’re ready to go. Tightening the metal piece at the top results in a finer grind (power, according to the product photo info) and loosening it makes for a coarser grind (flavor). I probably keep it around medium (balance) because I’m afraid of losing the metal piece. Loosening the metal piece is also how you remove it to refill the peppercorns.
I like the 5 inch size. It’s sturdy and won’t get easily knocked over. The peppercorn capacity is probably smaller than the larger models, but hopefully that means they’ll cycle through faster and I’ll have fresher pepper overall. It’s easy to hold and use for smaller hands.
Funnily enough, even though I haven’t owned a pepper mill in ages, I did have peppercorns stocked in the pantry. I took them out as soon as I got the mill and ground some pepper into my palm to test out the grinding mechanism. The mill seemed not to like the peppercorns too much, but I got some ground pepper out without too much effort. I tasted it, and it was sour! That’s when I realized I had inadvertently loaded the pepper mill with dried elderberries instead of peppercorns. Oh boy. Once I had actual peppercorns in there, it worked wonderfully.
If you hold on to the original proof of purchase for your Peugeot mill, the mechanical grinding mechanism comes with a lifetime warranty.
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