Peugeot Paris u'Select Salt Mill 5 Inch Beech

A salt mill and a pepper mill are not the same tool wearing different labels. This one grinds salt because its mechanism is 18/10 stainless steel, and stainless is there for one reason: salt eats ordinary steel.

• Stainless where it counts The working parts are the grade chosen to sit in contact with salt without pitting.
• Crushed, not ground Ribbed plates fracture each crystal rather than channeling it through cutting teeth.
• Five inches on the table Short enough to live at a place setting instead of standing on a counter.

Why Salt Gets Its Own Metal

Salt is corrosive to steel in a way peppercorns are not. Peugeot builds the salt mechanism from 18/10 stainless, where the chromium and nickel form a layer that resists exactly that attack. Put peppercorns through a salt mill and you are asking a metal chosen for corrosion resistance to do a job that needs hardness instead. The teeth dull, the grind turns inconsistent, and nothing brings it back. One mill, one seasoning, permanently.

Crystals Break, They Do Not Shear

The salt mechanism works by crushing between ribbed plates, which is a different action from what a pepper mill does. A salt crystal is brittle and fractures cleanly under pressure, so the mechanism only has to apply force rather than cut. That is also why what you load matters: Peugeot points buyers at dry rock, and puts a ceiling on how big a crystal the plates will take. Damp salt is what jams a mill, not coarse salt, because moisture makes crystals stick to each other and to the plates.

The Case for a Short Mill

Five inches is a dining table height rather than a cooking height. It sits beside the plates, gets picked up with one hand, and does not tip when somebody passes it across. The trade is capacity and reach: a five inch body holds less and needs to be brought to the food rather than held over a pan. If your seasoning happens mostly at the stove, height buys you something this size deliberately gives up.

Loading, Grinding and Wood

What kind of salt should go in it? Dry rock salt, with grains no larger than about four millimeters. Anything wetter or coarser than that is asking the plates to move something they were not sized for.

Can I use it for peppercorns instead? No, and the damage is one way. Stainless was picked for corrosion resistance rather than hardness, so peppercorns wear the teeth down and the mill never grinds evenly again.

Does untreated beech need any care? Keep it dry and wipe rather than wash. Bare wood absorbs, so a spill left sitting will darken the grain, and submerging it will swell the body around the mechanism.