Mortar and pestles come in many sizes and materials and are very versatile.
Mortars and pestles have been used for centuries in different parts of the world. Mortar refers to the bowl, and the pestle is the bat-shaped tool for grinding or pounding inside it. They're associated not only with cuisine, but also medicine and even witchcraft and Slavic mythology. Mortar and pestles can be made of hardwood, granite, marble, iron, porcelain and glass. Choose mortar and pestles for their intended purpose; while wooden ones work for dry ingredients, nonabsorbent materials like stone suit wet ingredients better.
Spices and Seeds
Use the mortar and pestle to crush or coarsely grind whole spices such as peppercorns or cloves. Spices ground to a powder in this way offer better fragrance than with other methods. In Mexico, basalt mortar and pestles called molcajete y tejolete are used for grinding chillies, seeds and spices as well as corn. The Japanese version, made of porcelain with grooves in the inner surface and called a suribachi, serves well to grind seeds.
Pastes and Spreads
Cooks in Italy pound together herbs, olive oil and nuts to make intensely flavorful pesto. In France, mortar and pestles are used to make aioli, a mixture of garlic, egg yolks, olive oil and lemon juice, as well as tapenade, a crushed olive and herb spread, and mayonnaise. Mexican cooks may use it for mixing guacamole, and Indian cooks spice pastes and masalas. While modern Thai food enthusiasts can easily buy curry and chili pastes pre-made, serious Thai cooks find their krok mortars and saak pestles indispensable for making their own from scratch.
Science and Healing
For pharmacists, the mortar and pestle has been both a tool and a symbol of the profession since the times of ancient Egyptian and Persian apothecaries. Laboratory mortar and pestles turn solids to be used in experiments into powders that will dissolve more easily. Mortar and pestles have their place in alternative medicine as well as science. Use them to crush pills or herbal remedies such as flax seed and bee pollen. In herbal medicine, they're also used to crush dried herbs, whether fine leaves or flowers.
Magic
Herbs and powders are used in pagan practice and the African-American folk magic hoodoo. Use the mortar and pestle to grind mixtures of herbs into fine powders to be spread in locations or over people as blessing or protection. Hoodoo practitioners make sachet powders, incense, bath crystals and floor wash from herbs and roots with mortar and pestles.
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