I bought myself a little mortar and pestle one day, years ago now, when I wanted to make a small batch of crushed cardamon seeds. But this tool is capable of so much more. Let’s explore.
What brought this tool to mind was the YouTube series, Pasta Grannies. This delightful series shares how older Italian women (often in their 90s and 100s) make their pasta and sauces using old-timey techniques. Since they started cooking before blenders were used in kitchens, their cooking preference continues with those tools.
But even now, while blenders provide a convenience, they are sterile in terms of adding any additional flavor or nuance to a dish. It is like using stainless steel vats to create wine, versus French Oak. They both create the same product, but the flavor, depth, and nuance of the fruit is better using the wood and not the steel (IMHO).
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Introducing the Molcajete + Tejolote
Definition
This culinary tool consists of two parts, a bowl shape to hold ingredients, and a club shaped ”pounder” to break those ingredients down. Traditionally, this tool was used by many people, and often for non-food related purposes: herbalists, doctors, pharmacies, ceramicists, mineral miners, cosmetic makers, bar tenders, spice mongers, nut or seed processors, and so on.
History
The mortar and pestle is a simple combo-tool that has been used for thousands of years to crush, grind, and pulverize.
- Scientists have found ancient mortars and pestles in Southwest Asia that date back to approximately 35000 BCE (1).
- MesoAmerican tool used ~6k years ago, clearly used by the Aztecs and Mayans (2).
- Neolithic (<5600 BCE) quern-stones, a naturally indented, durable, hard stone bases and mallets of stone or wood to process food and plant materials, clay, or minerals by stamping, crushing, pulverizing and grinding.
- Other Native American nations used mortars carved into the bedrock (often called depressions) to grind acorns and other nuts, using special rocks for the pestle.
In fact, most say Ancient Africans, Sumerians, Egyptians, Polynesians, Chinese, Indians, Greeks, Celts and countless other Indigenous Peoples created and used mortars and pestles for processing materials.
The invention of mortars and pestles was created at various times all over the globe, independently, and was a very practical solution to food issues. Some people believe this tool is fundamentally human, in that it prepared food yes, but the pounding may have played a rhythmic part of the invention of music as well (4). Some even believe humans started with fire, then developed cutting tools, and soon after the mortar and pestle in some variation. If that is the case, this tool set is indeed very fundamental to our species.
Description
The mortar is roundish shaped, like a steep sided and thick bowl, that is sitting on three legs and shaped to keep them from tipping over. The pestle is a heavy, hand fitting, club shaped pounder, with a rounded and sturdy bulbous end, built to increase leverage. Ingredients are placed in the bowl and, using the pestle, users start pounding, milling, or grinding the contents.
- Pounding: I pound seeds, garlic, and pods to break them up without jumping out of the bowl. Pounding is a technique used to make salsa or pesto, it is a pound and grind motion.
- Milling: This is taking rice (or any cereal, grains, seeds) and pound and grind until the ingredient becomes a flour. The rougher the interior of the bowl, the finer the flour.
- Grinding: I take spice seeds and grind them to release oils and break the seeds down into a usable cooking powder.
The reason the mortar and pestle is such a great tool is that you can pound, grind, and mill slowly and without producing too much heat. Industrial grinders, like using a coffee mill, will heat the ingredients in the bowl which can affect flavor and desired outcomes. So the slow and sure way, along with the seasoning of the tools, will produce the best quality of foods.
Source Materials for this Tool
Native Peoples historically utilized depressions in local stone outcrops and pounded corn or other grains using a stone. Over time we find that the tool becomes portable. For instance, the Mexican version was made out of stone, the bowl being carved from a single basalt stone. In other areas we see wooden versions being used and instead of primarily a grinding action, they used more of a pounding act.
I have seen this tool-set in many different materials, but anything done in concrete you should skip. In order of my preference, here are the common materials used in the USA.
- Best Source
- Basalt stone (naturally rough volcanic stone that is porous)
- Granite (non porous)
- Porcelain
- Ceramic (porous, and delicate, can chip or break)
- Marble (non porous, I use for spice blends or breaking seeds)
- Wood (hard wood, yet porous and smooth, only good for some limited applications in my view)
- Avoid if you can (for kitchen activities)
- Concrete (cheap fakes often made to look like volcanic rock)
- Glass (fragile and can break, but will not stain)
- Metal (non-porous steel or brass, good for medications, but sterile for food)
Really, certain cuisines require specific mortar and pestles. If you are going to make Mexican salsas, pepper sauces, and guacamoles get a granite or lava-stone one. If you are really into Italian garlic-based pesto and mayo-based sauces consider marble.
Modern Alternatives
In the fast pace of restaurant cooking, there is no room for mortar and pestles. Everything is done as quick as possible using these tools as a replacement.
- Coffee grinder or mill for spices
- Blender
- Hand blender
- Food processors
But these new tools cannot crush as well as a mortar and pestle.
Additionally, if you are going to a restaurant purporting to have authentically made cuisines, they should have and use the appropriate tools.
Tool Tips + Tricks
Curing
Curing a volcanic rock, or any stone mortar and pestle, is a necessity as porous rocks contain plenty of little holes full of debris. So, here is what I did to cure my then new bowl and its pounder.
First, they were both cleaned with water and a brush. I put the Mortar and Petle in the sink and scrubbed with a brush under running water. My aim was to clean the surface as best I could and get any contaminates off. I did this until the water did not contain any debris.
Second, I added ~1/3C white rice and a good pinch of kosher salt in the bowl, and started grinding the ingredients in a circular motion. Working my way all around the bowl, I continued until I had created a fine powder-like flour. Then tossed that, and repeated. I continued until there are no more dark flecks in the flour, indicating any holes or stuck on debris had been totally cleared out.
Third, cleaned again with water and a brush, then let air dry. I ran it under cold sink water again and brushed it to remove any of the flour, and then set them on a drain rack to air dry.
After following these steps, the mortar and pestle are ready to use without any remaining concerns about normal contamination.
- If you are worried about PFAS chemicals in your water, use filtered or distilled water for this process.
- If worried about arsenic in the rice, use organic white basmati rice from California, India, or Pakistan, or use sushi rice from the USA, as Dartmouth writes these may have less arsenic than other types of available rice.
Seasoning
Curing and seasoning are two different things. If I had a larger mortar and pestle and used it for making pesto or salsa or guacamole, I would cure my tools, let them dry, and then season them. But if you are only going to use a smaller mortar and pestle for smashing spices, you do not want to season for it will affect the flavor of those spices.
The only reason for doing seasoning is similar to a Tagine, we want to embed the basic flavor into the stone to make it a part of the food preparation in the future. Rock and ceramics can add their own flavor to dishes if similar foods are always made in the bowl.
First, add a few cloves of garlic and some rock salt into a dry mortar. How many or much of each depends upon the size of the mortar.
Second, grind away, all over the bowl until you have a finely integrated paste. Do this all over the bowl to get the juice into all its pores.
Third, rinse with cold water and brush well to remove any remains of the paste.
At this point your mortar and pestle are ready to be used for what your normally make. But note, you do not need to season your mortar if you do not regularly make sauces directly in the bowl. Honestly, over time, my bowl has seasoned itself with the spices and aromatics I usually add to it.
Cleaning + Storing
Clean under running warm water and lightly brush, then air dry. Never use any kind of soap.
Store only once it is completely clean and air dried. I keep mine on the kitchen counter, but not too close to the stove, and do not worry if it gets sun.
Other Choices
Spice Grinding
So I have a smallish, marble set that I use just for softer seeds, herbs, and spice mixing. For harder and powdered herbs and seasons I use a grinder.
My reasoning for having the spice grinding tool is for these obvious reasons:
- I prefer using the grinder for cutting rosemary, pulsing it a few times, for using a knife causes the rosemary to jump all over the kitchen, and mixing it in a mortar and pestle does not really get the small grind I want, as it mushes the herb.
- I prefer using and storing whole spices as they last longer, but sometimes need to grind them up for use when cooking. Some spices, like anise, are too large to do so in my mortar and pestle and I wind up chopping them and grinding in a spice grinder.
- Sometimes I want the spice fully powdered, and pulsing a spice grinder will often do the job in less time.
- Ginger, garlic, soft herbs, and other soft aromatics work out best in a mortar and pestle, some harder spices like cinnamon sticks, whole cloves work better in a grinder.
Prepping Sauces
My main tool in the kitchen is my knives. Sure I can smash garlic with a knife but a mortar and pestle will let me get the “smash” consistency better, and I can add ingredients such as peppers, tomatoes, cilantro and lime. My knife cannot combine the juices and create a paste of those ingredients as well.
My knife cuts well, and the side of the blade along with my fist can smash a garlic clove, but a mortar and pestle actually crushes herbs, seeds, etc. If I want to capture all the essential oils, full-bodied flavors, and unique body of a hunk of garlic or leaf of basil, crushing is the way to go (3).
If I regularly made these sauces, I would have a larger, stone bowl in which to mix these flavorful, colorful, and delightful sauces.
- Thai curry sauces
- Mexican salsas
- Indian chutney
- Italian pesto
- Egyptian dukkah
For some international dishes, whatever their native version of a mortar and pestle is, is almost always the best way to cook. As examples:
- Sesame paste comes together best in a Japanese Suribachi & Surikogi
- Mediterranean food often uses wooden tools
—Patty