I use a big mortar and pestle to grind up my pepper and it makes great big flakes of pepper. So good. And don't get me started on the canned cheese! Ew!

I know this is an old post but I wanted to mention I could not agree more about fresh vs. canned parmesan or pregrated packaged cheeses. I own a salad shooter and love to use it to grate my cheese fresh, it works great and clean up is a cinch.

I always buy a block of parmesan or as it is lovingly called in my house "stinky cheese" and shred it up in a food processor and then store it in the fridge. It goes pretty quick!

I use a pepper grinder too. When I need a lot of pepper for some recipe, more than I want to grind by hand, I use a coffee grinder.

Completely agree with you on both points. I usually use a blend of whole peppercorns...either a four blend or a five blend (has allspice in it as well) but will only but it whole and use a pepper mill.....

Parmesan...I am not even entirely sure that junk you buy from Kraft is real parmesan...it may say that it is, but man the taste and smell difference from real freshly grated parmesan is HUGE....

George - you are so right and there is a big difference in flavor as well. But I do wonder what exactly that sawdust is in the jar! Just curious.

I am a huge Pecorino Romano fan which I use in place of Parmesan. And I love to grate it myself - I never buy any shredded cheese in the store - I do it myself.