Tumia 21cm Mexican Lava Rock Pestle and Mortar Set (Molcajete) (21cm)

Product Information

A molcajete is simply a pre-hispanic mortar and pestle. No Mexican kitchen should be without one. The curing process is just that, a process. A mortar and pestle is about as lo-fi as it gets, a literally ancient implement comprised of a sturdy bowl (the mortar) and heavy club (the pestle). Pressing and twisting the pestle against the mortar breaks down spices and other ingredients, turning them into a powder or paste. While the same results can be achieved with a spice grinder, small food processor, or sometimes even a blender, the manual nature and countertop appeal of a mortar and pestle make it a lasting kitchen staple. Slight variations of the tool are used all over the world, in a myriad of sizes and materials, to create Italian pesto, Thai curry paste, and Egyptian dukkah. Finding the right style for you is a matter of taste and intended use, but we asked a few chefs about their favorites.

You’ll get good performance from this set for all the other things you want a mortar and pestle to do, but it’s especially wonderful for making any taco night feel like a trip to your favorite Mexican restaurant. Our tester recommends mashing the avocado in the mortar, moving it to a small bowl to mix in other ingredients, and then proudly serving your guacamole in the molcajete. If you want to go all the way, make your own homemade tortillas and consider one of our avocado storage recommendations for leftovers.

Molcajetes

Images from the Codex Mendoza (original in the Bodleian Library, Oxford): scanned from our copy of the James Cooper Clark facsimile edition, London, 1938 We thought that a product like this would be higher in price, considering It features 2 bowls in 1, is heavy, and comes with a silicone lid and a wooden spoon. However, all of the bells and whistles didn't prevent it from scoring low on versatility.

That a molcajete would have been a valued item in Aztec times is hinted at in the description of an Aztec banquet in Book 9 of the Florentine Codex, in which even the position for holding such an item when being brought to a banquet was regarded as important enough to be noted in the Codex, in words and in pictures:- If you want to make a statement, this stunning white mortar with its handsome wooden pestle might be the one for you. The mortar is made in Italy from Carrara marble, so it should come as no surprise that this set is especially adept at making pesto the old-fashioned way. (Our tester added her sauce to fresh homemade pasta for maximum Italiano vibes.) It’s pricey compared with the other models we tested, but it's still more affordable than many Italian marble imports on the market. The marble doesn’t need seasoning, but it is prone to stains, which Williams Sonoma recommends removing with lemon juice or vinegar. Is not easy to find a good molcajete these days but if you want to make this sauce you can also use a regular mortar and pestle or even a blender, I’ll let you know how to do so. Other materials used include stone, often marble or agate, wood (which is highly absorbent), bamboo, iron, steel, brass, and basalt. Mortar and pestle sets made from the wood of old grape vines have proved reliable for grinding salt and pepper at the dinner table. Uncooked rice is sometimes ground in mortars to clean them. This process must be repeated until the rice comes out completely white. Some stones, such as molcajete, need to be seasoned first before use. Metal mortars are kept lightly oiled. This particular mortar didn't need much curing as there was no visible sediment escaping, but keep in mind that this will vary.

A key advantage of the mortar is that it presents a deeper bowl for confining the material to be ground without the waste and spillage that occurs with flat grinding stones. Another advantage is that the mortar can be made large enough for a person to stand upright and adjacent to it and use the combined strength of their upper body and the force of gravity for better stamping. Large mortars allow for several people with several pestles to stamp the material faster and more efficiently. Working over a large mortar that a person can stand next to is physically easier and more ergonomical (by ensuring a better posture of the whole body) than for a small quern, where a person has to crouch and use the uncomfortable, repetitive motion of hand grinding by sliding. Related to the name of a heavy mallet used to strike blows, an Old English word used to mean conquer, defeat or overcome The classical Latin pistillum, meaning "pounder", led to English pestle. Stemming from the pistillum, the word pesto in Italian cuisine means created with the pestle.