Manual Grain Mill: A Practical Appliance

A hand operated grain mill is a practical kitchen appliance. In a pinch, you can grind popcorn for corn meal; grind peppercorns more easily than a pepper mill, grind coffee beans, wheat, barley and even make bread crumbs if your bread is dry.

Investment: Microwave popcorn popper

While it's not recommended that you use a paper bag to pop corn in the microwave, some companies are marketing a microwave popcorn popper. It's a lot less expensive to buy a bag of regular popcorn than to buy individual packages made for the microwave. Do the math and see how long it will take for a microwave popper to pay for itself!

Popcorn salt

You used to be able to buy salt that was finely ground to use on popcorn or nuts, but it's not common any more. You don't need as much finely ground salt when you use it on snacks, so to save a little money and lower the salt content too, put regular salt through a coffee grinder or a blender.

Free salt

Bags of pretzels, potato chips and other salty snacks usually have salt in the bottom of the bag... you're getting it. Don't throw it out. Save it in a special container and use it on popcorn, in coating mixes for meat or anywhere a slightly flavored salt would taste good.

I call it "free" because it's something most people throw out without thinking about it.

Cheaper popcorn

Popped on top of the stove, popcorn is a lot cheaper than microwave servings. Learn how to do it if you don't know, then grind regular salt in a coffee or pepper mill to use on it. Keep the "old maids" (kernels that don't pop) to feed to the birds (separate them out before salting or flavoring the popcorn) or mill them into corn meal.

Popcorn to cornmeal

Got popcorn that won't pop? Mill it into cornmeal and make yourself some delicious corn bread! If you don't have a flour mill, put the corn in a cloth bag or wrap it loosely in cloth, then crack it by hitting it with the flat side of a hammer or something similar. Finish milling it in your blender or food processor. Sift out the larger pieces process again.