Before Food Processors, This Hand-Crank Kitchen Gadget Broke Down Everything

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In the modern kitchen, the quickest way to chop large amounts of food into small pieces is to throw it in the food processor. The countertop appliance has many other creative uses too. But before electrical appliances became affordable enough to be featured in every home — and long after people were fed up with the task of chopping by hand — there was another option: the manual nut grinder.

The manual nut grinder isn't a sight you see much anymore, but at one point it would have been a common vintage kitchen feature, particularly if baking was involved. This manual appliance was a miniature grinder, featuring a hopper that was screwed on to a glass container. Nuts would go into the top and pass through two sets of teeth, which were rotated by turning the hand crank. The glass jar then doubled as a storage container for your chopped nuts.

The inventor, Carl Sundstrand, patented the device as a nut chopper in 1935, but in his application, he commented on how else it might be used — including chopping olives, hard boiled eggs, tuna fish or cherries. It's a simple enough invention, but at the time was the only alternative to what Sundstrand described as the "tedious work" of hand chopping, or the inconsistent results achieved with other available appliances such as a meat grinder.

When compared to a food processor, a nut grinder might not be versatile enough to warrant a space in your kitchen cupboards, but the device is not without its advantages. The main reason you might want to consider getting yourself a nut grinder (and yes, they are still made), is that they produce a much more consistent texture.

When you add nuts to a food processor, there's no option to set the size. You simply pulse for longer if you want smaller pieces. The issue here is that some pieces get more contact with the blades, ending up as powder, while other nuts are still in large chunks. It's a great way to make homemade nut butter, but not for making evenly sized pieces. With a nut grinder, the nuts only pass through the blades once, at which point they are chopped to the predefined size. 

With pre-chopped nuts readily available in stores, you might not think you have an occasion to use a nut grinder, but just as with spices, starting with the whole nut will always give you a fresher tasting result. Modern nut grinders, like the PrepWorks nut chopper have adjustable settings, so you can choose whether you want chunky pecan pieces or finely chopped peanuts.