While I own smaller ceramic types, the main workhorse here is heavy granite. You want the base of the mortar to be very thick, so it won’t crack when pounding, e.g. Szechuan pepper or Fenugreek seed to make powders. The grinding surfaces are about the roughness of unglazed stoneware. It does not retain odors. Works great to grind and mix seasonings with salt to make a powder which sticks to popcorn.
Granite is more resistant to acids than marbles. The tight, coarse grain in dark granite, composed mostly of quartz and feldspar, is more resistant to cracking than marble, which is composed of softer calcites and dolomites. The Calcium compounds in marbles makes many of them prone to etching or damage with exposure to acids, especially vinegar (Acetic Acid).
In any case, a thinner “waist”, under the mortar’s bowl, creates a weak spot in products with this design. The thicker the waist, if any, the better. Some waist usually is present in even very durable granite M & Ps, perhaps for aesthetics or to reduce weight or both.
I know this is an old thread, but I recently got a pretty large marble mortar with a thick wooden pestle. For years my sole mortar and pestle was a small apothecary style one. The added size and rougher textures are just marvelous additions. Big enough for plenty of pesto, aioli, crushing shrimp shells for a fumet. I wish I had gotten it decades ago.
I got a cast iron spice grinder set last year, but there’s something distinctly pleasant about using a mortar and pestle instead of my cuisinart (old and small; sometimes bigger is not better).
I am with you on the pleasure of using the mortar and pestle. On my other thread about by hand or by machine, I confess to preferring by hand on most all jobs.
Is 5 granite ones and 2 wooden ones overkill?
Maybe, but I like them. Still eying another one. The flat Indonesian cobek and ulekan.
I don’t really use the wooden ones except for making bread crumbs
I think different mortars and pestles are good for different things. My heavy and dense granite mortar and pestle are great at crushing hard objects. On the other hand, my Japanese ceramic suribachi and wooden surikogi have a lot of grinding power. They are specially great for hollow spices like sesame.
Anybody have the Mediterranean style? What do you think of it in terms of making pesto? It is said that the bigger head is useful to grind fiber in leaves like basil.
My latest “mortar & pestle” is a large Molcajete, perhaps one of the most useful for grinding chilies, hard spices, you name it. It’s made of volcanic basalt, with natural rough spots. Before use, one grinds hard, uncooked rice in it until the rice no longer turns grey from rock particles/dust. This takes some work, but is a one-time requirement. The pestle is called a tejolete.
I purchased mine from Masienda, from where these images came:
The surface remains textured enough so efficient grinding is achieved. For making salsa, it’s wonderful. I’m sure pesto would be a snap.
However, one word of caution: Never pound downward on these! You can crack the molcajete. Instead, use grinding, circular or rocking motions. Also, put some cardboard or a thick cloth under it when using to prevent scratching the table.
That is the style I just got. It has enough roughness on the surfaces of both mortar and pestle to pulverize things quickly, and the width of the pestle makes it very efficient. I’ll still use the smaller one for herbs and spices for individual dishes, but I am sure the larger one could handle them.
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CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
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We’ve had this Umien version for I think 5 years now, which they label a molcajete. It’s actually my 3rd daughter’s but I get to retain custody until she graduates nursing school next year.
I’m not sophisticated enough to know the difference between molcajete and a regular mortar and pestle, assuming there is one - and noting they also refer to it as a M&P later in their description. Here’s a stock photo
Plus another stock photo to show the size of this thing, it’s pretty big, and weighs about 4.5kg. I think the person in the photo was selected because she’s small, it’s not quite as big as it looks here (edit - or maybe they’ve monkeyed with the photo - her fingers look weird). Also, the Amazon description of “4 cups” capacity is wrong, it’s about 3 cups if quite full.
I like the size, although I only very occasionally have need of so much volume, and the ridges all over the inside of the bowl (which are also on the outside) make regular spice/seed grinding easy.
What I didn’t like about it was the amount of elbow grease required to “season” it and get it to the point where no more grit was coming off in normal use. First you do a bunch of garlic, and then if you’ve still got grit coming off they say to grind rice in it until you stop getting gray dust in the rice. I don’t recall precisely now, but I know we ended up doing the entire procedure at least twice, and maybe 3 times.
It gets great reviews, with 93% 4-5 star and only 3 % 1-2 stars. LoL at the 1-star reviews complaining, “I’ve washed this thing 10 times and it still gives off gray sandy residue” (the seasoning instructions are on the outside of the box itself).
Edit - Hah! I see now I could have just copied Robert’s post (@bogman). Except this one has felt stickies on the feet so no worries about scratching surfaces.
