But that's not the subject of today's post. No, today's post is about the pepper and salt containers that we use at Darlington House. Not quite so thrilling a subject, perhaps, but certainly a more appropriate one for this blog and for its readership.
When we first bought Darlington House and began to entertain in earnest, we used at table the silver pepper shakers that I grew up with, a wedding gift to my mother, MD. They are in the shape of miniature eighteenth-century silver sugar casters, and they hold finely pre-ground pepper. I paired them with an early set of Sheffield salts that I found on eBay.
Over time, though, I traded MD's silver pepper shakers for silver-banded ebony pepper grinders that I found at Scully & Scully on Park Avenue. We pair them with unmatched Regency cut-glass salts. This is what we use at table today at Darlington House.
In our kitchen, though, we use more humble vessels for salt and pepper. When cooking, we use a latch-grinding pepper mill, and we have several earthenware salt containers to dig in to for pinches.
We keep white pepper in this white metal grinder:
At our kitchen table we use the Peugeot grinder shown at the outset of this post, along with a heavy glass salt cellar. They are both very satisfying to use.
Interestingly, we haven't a single salt shaker at Darlington House. We only use salt cellars, the subject of a subsequent post, Dear Reader.
Tell me, do you administer your pepper from a grinder or a shaker?
Photographs by Boy Fenwick
Reggie, the silver-banded ebony salt grinders are perfectly beautiful. At table we use Yeoward crystal salt cellars (bone spoons) and in the kitchen it's Alessi salt and pepper grinders - plastic, I'm afraid.
ReplyDeleteI have lovely silver salt cellars and wonderful silver salt and pepper shakers, but generally use a pepper grinder and sea salt.
ReplyDelete"Rubirosa" - I haven't heard that term in ages. It's one of my favorite stories in the annals of cookery.
ReplyDeleteI found four sets of silver shakers like your mother's at a church sale. They are on the table at holidays. (They remind me of medieval solders.)
ReplyDeleteWe have two tall Mid-Century acrylic shakers that have shaker tops and grinder bottoms. One holds white pepper and black pepper corns; the other holds black pepper and sea salt.
I make salt and peppers in my clay studio. Your post prompted my latest blog entry at http://jeanetteharrisblog.blogspot.com.
Enjoy reading your postings.
Cheers,
Jeanette
As I love freshly ground pepper, it is 100% grinders/mills.
ReplyDeleteAs I collect Swedish Neo-classical furniture, my salts are in the form of tiny Viking ships, in silver and in pewter to suit the occassion.
Grind away, TDC!
DeleteFor entertaining, sterling salts and an antique ebony and sterling Rubirosa that I treasure. But the last one in the post with the P is by far our favorite and one we use on a daily basis. It is by far the best.
ReplyDeletePorfirio Rubirosa was a friend of my aunt and uncle's and came to Cuba frequently to play polo while married to Flor Trujillo, the dictator's daughter. I could never see the attraction he had for women, but then again I was only a youngster and what did I know of those things. Years later when his reputation with women became the thing of jokes and inuendos, I wished I had payed more attention!
Roxie, Yes, I am sure today you (one) would cast a different eye on Mr. Rubirosa, given what is widely known about his apparent "gift" . . . Thanks, RD
DeleteSilver grinders; I can't imagine pepper any other way, (from grinders I mean, not necessarily silver). At table we pair those with either a quartet of George III salt cellars, (two of which double as mustard pots), or a pair of William Yeoward salt cellars in the shape of column capitals:
ReplyDeletehttp://corcol.blogspot.com/2008/06/salts.html
Thank you Columnist, I agree -- grinders are far preferable to preground pepper. Rgds, Reggie
DeleteIn the city kitchen, I use Peugeots grinders of different sorts. There are a pair of sterling swan salt cellars we sometimes put on the dining room table -- but always empty, as I don't really approve of putting grinders or cellars on a dining table.
ReplyDeleteIn the country kitchen, there are similar but larger wooden pepper grinders and a plain salt pig which I keep filled with Hawaiian red salt. (In your honor, Reggie, I will now think of it as "a Doris Duke.")
Hello Ancient: "Doris Duke"? That is hilarious, Boy and I both burst out laughing when we read this! Thanks for the amusement, RD
DeleteI am rather lusting after the banded ebony grinders you have. They look like fabulous little chess pieces. Just perfect!
ReplyDeleteI always use a grinder for the pepper and I have a preference for wooden ones, like the vintage Dansk grinders. They feel lovely in the hand and are beautifully designed. Currently we use a handmade grinder of koa wood I found in a shop near Kona, HI, paired with a depression-era glass salt shaker (with a few grains of rice of course) for more casual use. My heirloom salts I don't bring out that much- you have to store them empty because the salt tends to pit the silver over time. I've been looking for interesting glass salts for ages because deep down I sort of disapprove of salt shakers at the table.
Hello Lynne: You, too, can own the ebony grinders with but a click to S&S's website...RD
DeleteRubirosa,haven't heard that name in an age. He also was a paramour of Zsa Zsa Gabor. In the kitchen until very recently I used to use a French,wooden pepper grinder given to my parents for a wedding present in 1954. I dropped it and a massive chip came off from the side, and it wouldnt grind properly again. Now I buy pepper corns in a glass jar with a plastic grinder. I know. I'm not very into food prepartion/cooking accoutrements I'm afraid.
ReplyDeleteZsa Zsa was no fool, her only regret was that she never married him, though. Pictures of her laughng at his marriage to Barbara Hutton are quite delightfully mean and wicked.
DeleteRubirosa! Ha! I'll never look at a pepper grinder the same way for the rest of my life, Reggie!
ReplyDeleteWe, like you, always use pepper grinders (old, family pieces) and glass salt cellars. Within the family, we never use a spoon with the cellars as salt destroys silver. With guests, we add a small salt spoon. We were told at the silver smith at Colonial Williamsburg that silver spoons required frequent replacement for that reason.
We have half a dozen salt spoons, too, but we almost never use them, preferring instead to use our fingers. Unhygenic, perhaps, but most satisfying! RD
DeleteI don't believe I own a salt shaker any longer. We use small dipping bowls as salts next to the stove and for casual meals. Unfortunately, most guests are baffled.
ReplyDeleteYes, and I'm sure they haven't a clue what to do with a soup spoon, either! Thanks, RD
DeleteUnfortunately, those beautiful pepper shaker heirlooms have to be put away, because fresh-ground pepper is the only way to go. My favorite grinder used to be a painted wooden one that finally wore out; my current one is heavy cast blue-anodized aluminum. I had thought that salt grinders were too fussy, but I recently got one and like it.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting side-note is that while some antique salt and pepper shakers were made in China, mostly for export, occasionally one comes across shakers with very fine holes which are for sprinkling medicine, not pepper.
--Road to Parnassus
Grind away! I agree entirely. RD
DeleteHello Reggie,
ReplyDeleteYes, pepper mills are used in our household too, both for white and black peppercorns. I absolutely love the milk churn form of the ebony and silver ones you use, a classic British design I believe.
For salt, we use a small collection of Regency glass salt boats at table, and glass custard cups hold kosher salt on top of the stove for easy access while cooking.
We do much the same. I look forward to sharing our collection of salts shortly, dear LizaE. RD
DeleteRD,
ReplyDeleteThat pepper mill is about 5 inches too short to be called a "Rubirosa"... ;)
Indeed!
DeleteThe pepper mill discussion reminds me of days long ago when there were "continental" restaurants that featured Caesar salads prepared table side, the waiter always finishing with a grind of pepper delivered with a flourish from a very tall pepper mill. Entrees ran to chicken Kiev, veal Oscar and beef brochette, preferably served flaming and desserts were always "flambe" - either cherries jubilee or crepes Suzette
ReplyDeleteAs to salts - we have numerous silver open salts, Georgian, Victorian and 20th century along with lots of pepper shakers with TINY holes - the pepper has to be nearly pulverized to make it through - most unsatisfactory. So we use the salts and very plain wooden or acrylic pepper grinders for dinner parties - and the grinder attached jars from Trader Joe's for everyday
Yes, the pepper required for my mother's pepper shakers is so fine as to be almost impossible to find these days. I much prefer to use a grinder, and I like my pepper much coarser than the shakers allow. RD
DeleteI do love this post, Reggie! In my parents house we used to have pretty pepper/salt shaker on the dining table in the kitchen and a pepper mill for when cocking and need coarser pepper. As I found myself buying more copper for my kitchen, I thought I would like to get this pepper mill http://www.amazon.com/Pepper-Mill-Imports-Atlas-Copper/dp/B000WCVDGG/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=8QRDEBTKSNBO&coliid=I3KNZQEJFZLGGT
ReplyDeleteReggie, can you add 'search' button for your blog, please? I was going to re-read some of you previous posts, but it is almost impossible to find :(
Hello Irina, I will see what I can do about adding a search function, as you request. I do categorize my posts by subject, which is a good way to pursue a particular topic. Thanks, Reggie
DeleteOh, this brings me back. I spent my entire college career in the early 1970s waiting table in just the kind of Continental restaurant that Anonymous3:07 describes--I think he must have had one of our old menus in front of him.
ReplyDeleteWe were noted for the quaity of our steaks & seafood, the opulence of our all-red decor & for having the biggest Rubirosas in town. And just to make sure that nobody missed them, while our Rubirosas awaited the call to service, they stood at attention in their own spotlit niche in the center of the room. Very continental.
And yet here's the thing: in my pink-cheeked innocence--and senior in college or no, I was innocent--I always assumed that our Rubirosas were, like Veal Oscar & Shrimp DeJonghe & Bananas Foster, named after the restaurant or chef that first popularized them. I never bothered asking, and maybe it was just because of my propensity to blush at the slightest provocation that nobody ever told me otherwise. At any rate, it wasn't until a few weeks before I graduated in 1976 and moved on, that I read Truman Capote's "La Cote Basque, 1965" in the latest issue of Esquire and learned to my chagrin the spicy backstory of what I'd just spent the last five years brandishing under the noses of my customers, including, one time, the ultra-conservative Phyllis Schlafly, who, then, in Peoria, was held in the same esteem that Sarah Palin is held in certain circles today. I had forgotten all about that little episode of my illustrious career.
Dear Simply Grand: what a DEIGHTFUL story you tell, and how charmed I am by your (then) innocence. Ah, youth, that we may remember it with all its charming foibles. How sweet. Thank you, RD
DeleteI meant DELIGHTFUL!
DeleteI am ALWAYS late to the posts that inspire me to comment. My pepper grinder in the kitchen is an old Turkish coffee grinder...brass. It's amazing what one will become obsessed with during the division of marital property.
ReplyDeletePremarital assets are usually a non-issue and my coffee grinder was mine pre-betrothal. But I was so worried that LFG's mom was gonna want my brass Rubirosa that a month or so before the movers came to cart away our halved possessions, I hid the thing in the trunk of my car.
As for my other Rubirosa, she'd long-since lost her desire to twist the handle on that one.
What a great post. It's funny isn't it, how figuring out these small details adds so immeasurably to life at home. I've started using tiny individual salt and peppers for entertaining, and in the kitchen I have a salt cellar with Kosher salt for cooking, but I have had no luck with pepper mills. Usually it is the grinder mechanism that fails. Even my last one, a fancy schmancy lacquer model with a Peugeot grinder, ended up dying. Will hop over to S & S and check out yours! N.G.
ReplyDeleteReggie Dearest:
ReplyDeleteThe sugar casters never looked so good on our dinner table!
Look for a package from me soonest, if not already arrived. The one object is obvious, but the other may be a puzzle. I thought of your flower arranging table/room when I saw the britanniaware piece. From the hallmark I make it to be from the mid-eighteen-sixties. Too young for Darlington House, really, but at 150 years old not bad for adding water to vases...
xox,
yr. sister Hermione
Hello, could you tell me the brand or where I could get the metal pepper mill with the P on it? Thx!
ReplyDelete