Spice Grinder Kitchen Trick

I love this spice grinder kitchen trick.  Have you heard this one?
First, you’ll need a Blender.

Next, you’ll need a homemade spice blend in a standard glass canning jar.  Why, you ask, would you need to or want to blend up a spice mix?  Well, I’m glad you asked.  There is a very good reason.  Fluffy leaf-spice mixes are good, but a spice blend that is ground to a fine powder will give you maximum flavor instantly, and stay homogenous (mixed in perfect proportions).

Way back when I was looking for the perfect Homemade Ranch Dressing Recipe, I kept seeing the instructions: “Refrigerate overnight to allow the flavors to blend.”  This is a nice thought…a good theory.

But I only ever discover that we’re out of dressing and condiments as the table is being set for dinner, so the overnight stuff doesn’t work so well for me. Plus, I’ve noticed that the fluffier herbs tend to stay at the top of the jar.  Which means that you end up with a spice blend that never really mixes evenly, and yields unpredictable flavor shifts as you use it.

So, I said to myself “I bet the flavors would mix in better, and blend in much quicker if they were ground up really fine.”  I got busy making the recipe, and ground it up like so in my handy-dandy blender…and sure enough!  When the fluffy dried oregano and big ole’ honkin chives were blended finely enough, they just melt into the recipe infusing it with instant flavor.  Puuuurrrrfect.

This is how it works:

The makers of the classic Osterizer blender were geniuses.  They designed the base to fit a standard canning jar.  So, all you have to do is remove the base from your blender jar, and…(drumroll please)…

screw it onto your canning jar.  Voila!  Pop the jar onto your blender base, and…

turn it on.  I just love playing with my kitchen appliances.

I found this beauty…a vintage, professional model ‘Deluxe’ Osterizer at an Antique store over ten years ago.  We’ve been great pals ever since.

See those big fluffy chunkies of oregano and chives at the top of the blender?  They’re getting sucked down into the vortex of ultimate chopping power, and pulverized into perfectly blended spice mix perfection.

It’s hard not to wax poetic over such a beautiful thing.

And this, my friends, is a beautiful thing.  If you have a scratch and sniff computer screen, be sure to take advantage of this heavenly aroma.  This is my homemade Greek Salad Dressing Recipe, which has become the house spice blend of choice around here.

You can also use this same jar/blender trick for mixing pancake batter, salad dressing, smoothies, iced coffee drinks, and other stuff.  And all you have to wash up is the blender base!

Now, you could also pulverize stuff with a food processor or even a handheld immersion blender if you don’t own a blender that will work this way.  But I like this trick best because it is so efficient and doesn’t leave me with lots of dishes to wash.  Plus, I just love using my blender.  And if you’re ever in the market for a good blender, I highly recommend a classic Osterizer with the square glass jar.

Discover more cool kitchen tips with Kitchen Tip Tuesday hosted by tammysrecipes.com