How to Pick the Best Mortar and Pestle | Serious Eats
Vložit
- čas přidán 23. 07. 2024
- For grinding foods to transform their texture and release their full aroma and flavor, nothing beats a good mortar and pestle. Today, the mortar and pestle remains a crucial tool in culinary traditions around the world, and it deserves to be treated as an essential in every kitchen. Not just because it served our ancestors so well, but because it continues to do what no other item in the kitchen does: smashing fibers and cells apart to fundamentally transform their texture and release their full aroma and flavor. That's something a blade can't ever do as well.
FULL STORY: www.seriouseats.com/2018/08/b...
Our favorite mortar and pestle: amzn.to/2SS0WG9
See More Like This!
How to Make Meatballs: bit.ly/2NK8Y2I
How to Make Sous Vide Duck Confit: • Sous Vide Duck Confit ...
How to Finish Pasta the Right Way: bit.ly/2TsVVs6
Subscribe to Serious Eats!
bit.ly/2BIlM59
Follow Us Elsewhere:
/ seriouseats
/ seriouseats
/ seriouseats
/ seriouseats
Serious Eats is a leading resource for all things food and drink: meticulously tested recipes that really work; in-depth, science-based explanations of cooking techniques; detailed reviews of cooking equipment; and guides to ingredients, dishes, and cuisines. We bring a democratic yet scientific approach to cooking the best dishes, busting food myths, and delivering strong opinions on what you should eat next, where, when, and why.
So basically, you can have a granite mortar and pestle, and just keep an extra broad-headed wooden pestle around for pesto, and you're good.
I thought the same, but then wondered if the granite would significantly wear down the wooden pestle. I actually own what looks like that exact first, large Thai granite set, so I'm particularly interested.
Yup, could work, you'd just need to track down a wooden pestle that is the right fit for the granite mortar.
The surface of the pestle and mortar are equally important.. pesto is best when it is creamy and gently broken down, not torn and shredded, even if it's still broken down pretty well it will be closer to the processor result and sort of defeats the purpose of spending this much time preparing your sauce
You are a freaking genius, I almost bought another pestle because of the wooden stick. Thank you for saving me $30 and space in my kitchen.
I have been using the granite all my life and Thai tall one. Both is lovely loving my pestle
In thailand when we used mortars cooking we put a piece of cloth or pices of fablic under the mortar and the sound will not be heard...the sound will not be loud.. that's tip. & trick. 😊😁
Totally agree and it will reduce the noise plus it save time
Can this thing crush cummin and other hard and small seeds ?
Ty for the tip by the way the world needs more you :)
@@turtlebeach3116 yes it can work with many things
Hi do you know from which site i could get one?
@@elvinadhludhlu5380 well if you live in Germany galaria Kaufhof or amazon otherwise search in Google shopping
I think there is a reason why each one of those were made traditionally. That is why they exist. In india we see a lot more variety depending upon region. Like we have huge mortar and pestles in which we would traditionally grind our dry spices in large quantities. My grandmother used one for a very long time. Made of iron. Then in southeren india there is a round one with a big round stone shaped pestle which was traditionally used to grind wet batters for idli and dosa.. needed a god lot of arm strength. Then we also have a long boat shaped mortar and pestle for making paste of leaves (we have only seen those in movies). Also a flat stone mortar (if you may call it that) with a cylendrical pestle to make a paste of anything and everything wet... which is called sil-batta. Each one has its significance which we are ignorant of. I also saw a few videos of people in south and west african countries making fufu and using a speacial mortar pestle to do that. So please we only know so much. And we can't discard anything as useless because of our limited knowledge...
Doesn't need lot of arm strength at all. You are just pushing/moving the pestle along the round surface of the huge mortar.
It's almost like each culture developed one designed around their needs...imagine that...;)
Ha yeah, exactly. I'm more explicit about that basic point in the accompanying article.
Yep. Italy for pesto. Thai for paste. America for decoration.
@@SuWoopSparrow, LOL. Just when I was about to ask about the ceramic one :)
SuWoopSparrow
Those porcelain ones actually do have a use, but mainly in a laboratory. They’re relatively heat and chemical resistant, making them handy for breaking up clumpy or chalky substances, and they’re hard-wearing, so you can use sand as a grinding medium. Kinda crap for a kitchen, though.
there are stones throughout northern california covered in mortar holes on the tops of them
Here in México, the molcajete it's used almost every time for salsas. Guacamole can be made, obviously, but here would be seen as something staged.
Good pick on the Thai mortar and pestle. Thats exactly what i use for everything. It will even powder spices for Christmas cookies or chai.
Glad I saw this video. I've been on the market for a mortar and pestle for a long while now. Kept putting it off for one reason or another. Thanks for making this vid!
Always add some salt first it helps the grinding.
Definitely! I have a video coming out about pesto specifically where I include that detail. This video was getting too long already to include some stuff like that.
"some stuff like that" Absolute basic step with mortar use!
Great tip, thanks!
Just to add, it helps when you mince garlic with a knife too.
I find myself wishing he had discussed....cleaning.
You soak it with water and then pour it away..
Some people only rinse with hot water (like cast iron). However, over time it will take on whatever strong odors you cook with and can contaminate other foods you try to make. This is normal, but can be slowed down with soap. Trust me, if you use your mortar often like I do then you want to slow it down.
SO. You actually CAN use a mild soap on your granite mortar but you have to be quick. Use hot water and some soap and rub it down and rinse. I scrub with my fingers. Do it more than once if you need to, but *do not* leave it to soak. Clean it up, turn it upside down to dry, and store how you see fit.
This video needed to be twice as long as it is right now. The first half was so in depth but it felt rushed in the second half and the conclusion was really abrupt.
Seriously thank you for this feedback. The prevailing wisdom in online video is short, short, short, so this one we thought was already waaaay too long as-is. It really helps to know you would have wanted to see an even more thorough treatment in video form, even if it means watching for longer.
@@dgritzer in all honesty I more wished you would have gone more in depth on the second half of morter and pestles because they're very traditional and it would've been nice to see them in action instead of just like 4 granite ones
Exactly how I felt
@@papitasloup2119 I was actually considering a molcajete but in the end basically zero attention was given to it.
THANK YOU - I have been waiting for something like this for so long
I love that there's someone out there who feels this way. I thought I was alone when I embarked on the project.
I have the Thai granite one. Absolutely love it. Hummus, guacamole, etc, come out so great! I gotta get my hands on the final three.
I have small stone one and a medium bamboo one, also, but they are less useful.
i think the key points are shape of the bowl with an appropriate sized pestle helps funnel the ingredients back to center so that you're not chasing it when it goes flying everywhere. second would be the texture to help grip the ingredients to grind much finer.
Ragnarok043 yeah that ceramic mortar is a slippery useless mess
Yup, I'd say so.
Good job, I am a Thai and this Thai Mortar & pestle serve us good in the kitchen , thanks for recommending to the others
I've had many of these. Mostly it comes down to the surface texture of the material surface. Ceramic is a apothecary utensil for powdery materials and too slick for food products. Wooden pestle doesn't have enough heft or texture. Marble is usually polished out too slick. The one I keep on my counter is identical to the Thai granite one. Cut and place a piece of rubbery non-skid shelf material underneath to protect counter and dampen sound. Oh yeah, be sure and breakin/season it before use.
All good points, though I'd say wooden pestles are great for some things, like pesto, as I show in the video.
How do you season it?
You grind white rice in it
@@MartinBaron69 : Exactly
@@aleonm5197 how r should you season a cast iron mortar and pestle?
Thanks for the assessment. I am currently looking for a good mortar and pestle set to suit most needs and this video helped me decide on the granite.
Thank you I've been trying to figure out what kind mortar pestle was best for my needs and now I know! Love the video!
Pharmacist will use ceramic or glass mortar and pestle for preparation. The way ceramic mortar used is wrong according to our practice. Basically, you need to press down, grind and to not make any crushing sound as you can chirp the ceramic into food/preparation.
Yea, i think the point of ceramic mortar is more like pulverizing salts or something with similiar texture into a really fine powder. Salts wont bounce around so much, you can just basically keep driving the pestle over the salt on a smooth surface.
Thai mortar and pestle would work probably better for salts too for cooking purposes compared to ceramic one. Maybe it would not make as fine powder as easily, usually you dont need super fine powders for cooking though.
Only point i see on ceramic mortars is for laboratory purposes. Because granite is porous, and it would be probably super hard to clean it properly, for some chemistry applications. Also you probably cannot acid wash granite. All our mortars in the chemistry lab that i'm working in are ceramic, i would never want to use them for making a paste or grinding something like pepper that bounces around and is not super fragile, like salt.
.
winw 454, yeah I don’t work in pharmacy (because I’m an early teen) but I can already think it might be used for medicine powders or crushing solid supplements into powder for those who can’t consume it whole.
The ceramic mortar and pastel is normally used to powder leafy dried herbs or like salt and is generally actually used in home cosmetics making
Thank you. This video was very informative. You helped me decide which mortar and pestle is best for my overall cooking needs.
the only mortar we have at home is a brass one, but the mortar has a completely round bottom and the pestle is round with one big side and one small side so it works pretty well. it all seems to be about a material with a little friction and pestle to mortar "area of contact".
we pretty much only use it for saffron sugar mixes at christmas tho
I bought a Thai granite one last year from a Thai market. Love it
i prefer the second thai mortar and pestle. but thats just because i grew up using it. i can smash anything into paste with that thing.
What is key is that the pestle matches the basin of the mortar in terms of rounded arc and width. I have a Turkish brass M&P that works better at grinding spices than anything I've ever tried because the pestle matches the mortar perfectly.
I use a mortar and pestle to grind coffee. It works out really well for french press.
i recently acquired a small ceramic, or perhaps porcelain, im not sure, one from cleaning out my grandmother's appartment, but i think its meant to be used to make paints since she was an artist. but this is helpful for choosing one for cooking!
Thank you. Exactly what I wanted to learn.
I have a wood and a volcanic stone mortar and pedestal. Ty hey both work great...
Granite is good for coarse to medium grinding but marble is fantastic for fine to extra fine grinding. I learned this the hard way trying to make spice powders. Trial and error is the best teacher, but also the most harsh and unforgiving.
Awesome video and products
The wooden ones tend to be used for bananas or roots like cassava (yuca, mandioca)
mlovecraftr iirc you can also make SOME asian salads using the wooden one as it doesn’t smash the ingredients to paste, but only gently crushes them, releasing the aroma
Thank you so much, SeriousEats! After watching your video, I went to Amazon, but couldn't find a pestle & mortar that came close to comparing to the marble & olivewood one you demonstrated. They just had some tiny, dinky mortars with inadequate pestles. So I came back here & thankfully you posted a link to your website. There I found the link for where to purchase the same exact Italian marble mortar & wooden pestle. I bought the medium-sized one. It shipped to me straight from Italy, & it is absolutely beautiful! Quality made, very satisfied! Thank you!
Thanks for the info! And thanks to CZcams for having a high speed setting!
Great review! Needed to buy one for the house for my spices
The ceramic/porcelain type mortar works best if it's a bit smaller, and is best for stuff like grinding salt. It also works on the final stage of pesto, when you add oil, much like the salves an apothecary would make with this.
The Thai granite mortar and pestle also comes in granite mortar and wooden pestle. You just buy the wooden pestle separately.
The wooden one is actually for making Glutinous rice and stiff like that, in Japan they use a big one for a mochi.
I purchased a small marble one earlier today, first mortar and pestle, so I could grind camphor. The camphor is on order as well.
Thanks for the great vid man. I bought my first one today and I got a granite one.
Thank you, your video helped me out :-)
I had a large brass one where the bottom was rounded so no corner, and the pestle looked like a nearly opened close to flat mushroom that covered a large portion of the bottom - it worked pretty well, but the metal was still kind of slippery.
That Thai one is the one my parents would use to turn anything into paste
What about flat grinders such as Metate (Central America) or Sil-Batta/Amikal (India)? Amikal works great for mashing and grinding chutneys, and pastes, where a Thai/Vietnamese/Chinese/Asian granite mortar and pestle tends to slide around much more.
You could consider, also, adding an olive wood pestle as an additional tool to use in your Thai mortar, giving you the best of both (European/Asian) worlds. A small marble mortar and pestle is a must for fine flake salt, powdered sugar, fresh cracked or ground spices etc. Pro tip: instead of holding the small pestle, and banging it up and down, press it with the heal of your hand into the mortar, and then rotate the pestle around the mortar like a grinding/milling stone, works a treat!
💜💙💚👏👏👏👏👏 thank you so much for this video!!! I had a ceramic one and my friend laughed and told me that was American DECORATION 😂🤣😂
Also THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! For calling them MAKRUT LIME LEAVES!!! I wish more cooks and Chefs would! 💖👍
Stone mortar, mostly Thai people. Popularly used to pound chili paste or spices that need a lot of detail. Reduce the noise of hitting the floor with cloth. As for the clay mortar and wood pestle Thai people like to pound the spices that need a little coarseness, such as Thai papaya salad. Most Thai kitchens have 2 types of mortars in almost every home. along with my kitchen
great review!!!
He's hilarious and made it entertaining to watch. Two thumbs up!
I had two small ones, they were either marble or alabaster.
I bought them on clearance for probably $2 each!!
And like an idiot, I gave them BOTH away as gifts... to people who NEVER used them!
I'd be surprised if they still have them!
Still kicking myself over it!
SPECTACULAR VIDEO. thank you very much from another cooking nerd
I have a small wooden mortar and pestle at home, and for the garlic crushing, I usually cup one hand losely over the top of the mortar to prevent the garlic from escaping and I don't hold the butt of the pestle's handle against my palm, but I rather grasp my hand around the handle of the pestle, so I don't end up hurting my hand. (But then again, my pestle's handle is longer, so it sticks out sufficiantly for me to do that.)
We have a small one similiar to the small marble one that i use to grind up baby fish food because it jas to be a true powder like consistency on top of having raw material inside it also has grooves carved into the base of the mortar
In Guatemala they use the volcanic rock ones to grind corn :D
Your technique with the Thai mortar is not the greatest. I use my Thai mortar exclusively and have ditched all the others because it’s just so easy to use. But I don’t lift the pestle so much. You can grind up and down the sides rather than lift and pound. Hard to explain but basically work with the weight. That way you also won’t get the stringy bits from herbs.
It’s so quick to grind spices in the mortar I don’t even bother with the pepper mill half the time. I find marble mortars never work for me - there’s not enough friction and stuff slides around.
I 100% agree with you. You have to understand the technique. Even with my molcajetes the technique is different than with a Thai mortar. You hold it different and the motion is different. But I have found, like you, that you should use the sides by pushing the food up and down the sides to really break down the fibers.
As a Thai I second this.
db00tugal I have Never felt more validated in my entire life! Thank you! 😂
db00tugal (
Agreed I love the granite one !!! 😍😍😍
Very informative. Now I know to avoid the ceramic and small wooden ones! Thanks!
You should also try the Indian stone grinding with "sil batta" would be fun and exciting....itthe base is a big stone slab and you grind with a huge pestle 👍🏻🙏🏻
It's surprisingly difficult to find a good one without spending a lot of money. Worth persevering though. I use mine for practically every meal now. Shattering discs of ginger is very satisfying.
Not true. When they are in stock u can order a very large granite one for 40 bucks.
😏👍 Cool, thx for the tests, i wanted to get one and was wondering about the different materials they are made from yay 😀
A minute and a half in and pestle no longer sounds like a word
Thank You !
Thank you!!
I have a volcanic molcajete. It's the best for everything. It can grind to whatever consistency you want. We also have what are called metates. Another type of grinding stones that existed before the molcajete.
*PHEW* Thanks for this video. Amazon's Black Friday sale put a porcelain M&P on sale and I was hesitant on buying it. Now I know not to even bother with an overglorified paper weight.
I got here after searching for a pepper mill. Why not something that can be used for more than one thing. Thank you for doing all the arm-tiring testing for us.
I have a stainless steel morter and pestle and it's wonderful
Fascinating
So what was your opinion on the Molcajete...so far I like the marble but how does the Molcajete grind spices
My Pestal head is really large also and works really well for me in tight quarters!
I looked at some online a few days ago. I guessed a bigger one like the larger Thai unit would work well but didn't want yo pay 75 or more dollars. I think I'll start with a small one and see how it goes.
6:37 so you have brass, marble and decoration for your kitchen that never gets used?
Thanks!
Nice information. What is the brand and size for the Italian M&P? Thanks
Where do I find a mortar and pestle like the first you reviewed? The Marble with Olive wood pestle.
It's good to have a bit of roughness on your mortar and pestle so your ingredients don't shift, but you can also effectively scrape the ingredients apart as you muddle them. Additionally, a bit of weight is good to have in the pestle, so you actually generate enough force when you bash the ingredients.
could you provide the link for purchasing the Thai Granite mortar and pestle? What is the dimensions of the Thai Granite mortar and pestle? Also, Did you evaluate any mortar and pestle from INDIA?
That weird golden one I have only seen used for bananas. My grandpa had one with his “bananas foster kit.” I never saw him use it though, so I don’t know which part of the process it is for. I can’t image you are supposed to crush garlic in in because it is such a weird shape, but I guess softer things like bananas would work.
Thanks Daniel 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
When you tried to go finer on the brass set, what was going on with your movements?
How big is the Italian marble mortar? I'm looking for one that size and want to know which one I should order.
Great channel.
Where can I find/ buy the Italian marble one with olive wood? I can’t seem to find it online.
ty great video
would have been great if you included the links where to buy stuff
Do you have a link for the marble and wood set?
Great video! Have you tried metal-on-metal mortar and pestle? cheers from Chile
I love a mortar and pestle for grinding spice mixes, there's nothing like it.
had you seasoned and broken in the granite one wouldn't sound so grindy... it's probably also grinding off stone into your food.
Interesting!
When a friend come over and never tried Thai food this what happens 4.57
If you wanted to grind spices, I would think the big heavy stone ones would be so hard to handle when getting the ground spices out of it. How would you even pour out the ground spices? I am also wondering how bad that awesome marble one would stain.
I have a large granite M&P and a small marble M&P. That seems to do the trick for me, but not I am curious about getting a wooden pestle and use it in my granite mortar for some things.
I could almost hear you, so the music isn't quite loud enough.
Pretty easy to hear him the entire time, so...
i would be interest to see how the olivewood pestle performs in the thai granite vessel....2 pestles might be a nice option for flexibilty
Thanks, I would have been afraid to buy a bigger model with a pestle made of wood. I'm considering buying the big marble one with the wooden pestle that you show. I own a small marble and larger Thai model similar to the ones in your video, and I always use the pestle that came with the bigger Thai model for both my large and small mortars. My smaller marble one didn't come with the large headed pestle. Spices like peppercorns, more jump out than get crushed. Using the bigger pestle solved that issue.
Different types for different jobs. Just like most tools. Thanks.
"I'm never going to feel comfortable with that...." 😂
Hello? What is the stone/granite size you were using?
Where can I find that broad head wooden pestle online?
Though I do agree some are pointless and are made where they will not truely work well, I feel like this is so similar to that new segment of the cups that don't tip over, while someone knocks them over repeatedly. I feel like there is an obvious bias without actually testing what you're doing... someone could actually finish with some of the ones you dislike
ครกหินไทย ถือเป็นมรดก และสามารถจำนำ หรือขายได้ราคาดีด้วยนะ
I have been shopping for a mortar and pestle, looks like the granite wins for this round but, where would I get a Thai one? Are they available online?
What's the name of the tool he used with the Suribachi to clear out the ridges?