The Vintage 1930s Baking Tool No One Really Uses Anymore

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Modern technology brought a number of innovations. At the same time, it sent countless items into history. Whether it's the butter churn, ice box, mayonnaise whipper, wall-mounted can opener, or egg scale, many of these once-essential kitchen staples have disappeared from our homes for good. And there's likely one more surprisingly useful baking tool that you probably don't own or even know exists. Here's a little clue: It's the good old nut grinder.  

The nut grinder is a long-forgotten relic you might either see in a vintage antique shop or discover while rummaging through some old boxes in your grandparents' basement. It's one of the kitchen tools that were popular 50 years ago, but no one uses anymore. This once revolutionary device, which came with a rotating blade, first appeared on the market in the 1930s. Designed and developed by entrepreneur and inventor Carl A. Sundstrand, it was actually patented under the name nut chopper.

It didn't take too long before this hand-cranked gadget was added to U.S. kitchens, replacing the universal food chopper that was mostly being used for meat and veggies. The nut chopper transformed food prep and was embraced by housewives and bakers across the country. But what did it really look like?

The original nut chopper was mounted on top of a glass jar where users could pour nuts into a small metal hopper. Turning the hand crank rotated the blade that pushed the nuts through a slotted grate. The nuts then came out evenly chopped rather than crushed. They dropped straight into the jar below, which simultaneously served as a storage container. 

But even though the nut chopper held an essential place in home kitchens at the time, its popularity began declining once modern appliances entered the market. The electric blender was first invented in 1922 by Stephen Poplawski, who also patented a household mixer in 1940. Industrialist Frederic Osius refined Poplawski's blender in 1937, and several decades later, in 1961, French butcher Pierre Verdun created the first food processor. Due to their convenience, speed, and capability to grind or chop nuts with no manual effort, these appliances soon became widely used in U.S. households.

Today, a high-powered blender like Amazon's Cuisinart SG-10, or an electric food chopper like the Ganiza food processor can grind nuts in seconds. So, whether you're making homemade nut butter, or finely chopping walnuts for double chocolate chip cookies or a beautifully soft and moist butter pecan cake, new tech has completely changed the way we prepare food.