I want to make my own peanut butter. I've read of various grinders–both hand-operated and electric. I'm most interested in finding a durable hand-operated peanut butter grinder. I know there are many spice grinders that can be used for peanut butter, but I don't want to skimp and get something that will break if I use it primarily for making peanut butter.
What should I look for? How do I know if a grinder will survive a large number of peanut-butter batches?
Best Answer
I am answering my own question with information I have gathered after doing some of my own research. Several hand mills claim to make peanut butter, but the mill that seems to have the best public following and reviews for flour making, the Country Living Grain Mill, does not claim to make peanut butter in their marketing literature. I contacted the manufacturer, and got this reply:
Of course their answer has every reason to be biased, and not tell me if there is a good peanut butter hand press available on the market.
Another popular press, the Wondermill Junior Deluxe claims to make creamy peanut butter with their stainless steel burrs, and one Amazon review agreed it was possible, but too messy to be worth the effort.
Reviews of two different griners at http://www.grainmillcomparison.com/ seem to agree with the general consensus that hand-made peanut butter isn't the state of the art (yet):
And:
I have not been able to find a single first-hand account of making peanut butter with a hand mill that said it was worth it. As already mentioned, the amazon review mentioned above said it was far too messy. Many other reviews I've found have said the end result only vaguely resembled peanut butter--and never creamy peanut butter.
In an effort to directly answer the question at hand, though, the only feature I so far have been able to find that is required specifically for peanut butter is that the mill have steel burrs, as opposed to stone which are desirable for finely ground flour, as the stone will absorb oil from nuts, causing the system to clog.
EDIT: I got an additional reply from the Country Living Grain Mill manufacturers, explaining (in no great detail) what is required for a nut-grinder: