A vintage Stamping mill for spices @museum.de

This is the exhibit mostly loved by Spicy’s boss Viola Vierk. She experienced the use of it “live” during her time in the spice trade.

It is hard to believe that this machine worked until the shutdown in October 1998 right in the middle of a residential area in Hamburg-Eilbek. Family Rostock, Owner of the wage mill, were so conviced of their old machines that they did not want to exchange them for new ones at any price. Heinz Rostock had been the owner of the wage mill Friedrich Heed, founded in 1903, for more than 25 years which thus was one of the eldest spice mills in Hamburg. Taking a look at the old stamping mill, you will get an impression of the toil the spice millers had to endure and why they all had a crooked back. Even when empty the grinding jars cannot be lifted because they are so heavy.

This is an impressive machine. Unfortunately, we could only put up a quarter of it in our museum. In former times, spices were ground cold with the grinder in order to keep the essential oils as long as possible. The stamping mill was processed by a line shaft, i. e. the tamping irons ground the product into the mortars.
This stamping mill truly tells spice history.