mortar and pestle ...

[~gd]

For small jobs I use a muddler in an cut glass old fashioned glass [see bar supplies] for slightly larger jobs I use spice grinders [piggly wiggly sells low end spices in these for a buck] i usually throw the spices away because they are crap the grinders screw off the jar and have 4 different settings. plastic but I haven't broken one yet. Next step up is a power coffee grinder again adjustable from perk to expresso powder. limited space about 1/3 cup at a time but it is very fast [and noisey]. I was a chemist and over the years various have 'followed me home' the stabdard white coors at 3 1/2" works best for me. The bottom of the mortar and the face of the pestle are unglazed and you can grind until happy. BTW those groved mortars from Japan willl not grind finer than the depth of the groves.

 

[ORChick]

For small jobs I use a muddler in an cut glass old fashioned glass [see bar supplies] for slightly larger jobs I use spice grinders [piggly wiggly sells low end spices in these for a buck] i usually throw the spices away because they are crap the grinders screw off the jar and have 4 different settings. plastic but I haven't broken one yet. Next step up is a power coffee grinder again adjustable from perk to expresso powder. limited space about 1/3 cup at a time but it is very fast [and noisey]. I was a chemist and over the years various have 'followed me home' the stabdard white coors at 3 1/2" works best for me. The bottom of the mortar and the face of the pestle are unglazed and you can grind until happy. BTW those groved mortars from Japan willl not grind finer than the depth of the groves.

Quite true, but they are perfect for grinding seeds as part of a sauce - sesame, peanut - or for crushing garlic. The Japanese (and I) use them more for saucy/wet things, rather than dry, powdery things. (Also, they are quite decorative on the kitchen shelf, if you like that kind of thing )

 

[ORChick]

I have two. A wooden one that isn't practical to use, gifted to me. The other is the "stone" type that I make guacamole in quite often. I just got the recipe for the Pumpkin Seed pesto and am going to make that in the stone one. I don't know that I am capable of crushing herbs with the mortar and pestal. There is something very special about making the guac in there tho. I love grinding and crushing the ingredients. I have tried using it for parsley, but couldn't quite get it to the consistency I wanted. Any one have any recipes????

Herbs are difficult; I use my mortat more for dried spices. With herbs, dry or fresh, you might have better luck if there is something else abrasive in the mortar with them - like coarse salt maybe (although that would be too much salt for me). I usually chop fresh herbs with a sharp knife, or crush dried ones between my fingers, and then add to whatever I am making.

 

[~gd]

I have two. A wooden one that isn't practical to use, gifted to me. The other is the "stone" type that I make guacamole in quite often. I just got the recipe for the Pumpkin Seed pesto and am going to make that in the stone one. I don't know that I am capable of crushing herbs with the mortar and pestal. There is something very special about making the guac in there tho. I love grinding and crushing the ingredients. I have tried using it for parsley, but couldn't quite get it to the consistency I wanted. Any one have any recipes????

Herbs are difficult; I use my mortat more for dried spices. With herbs, dry or fresh, you might have better luck if there is something else abrasive in the mortar with them - like coarse salt maybe (although that would be too much salt for me). I usually chop fresh herbs with a sharp knife, or crush dried ones between my fingers, and then add to whatever I am making.

I have a gaget called mincing sheers 7 sets of blades on one pivot point. You can get some wonderfull i/8" ribbons or double cut to get 1/8 X 1/8 bits. I have used it on both fresh and dried herbs, only slightly better on fresh.

 

[happydog]

Before I became a foodie, I once found a big heavy gold mortar & pestle in the attic. It looked old and dirty, not something I wanted in my nice clean house, so I chucked it in the charity box. Imagine my dismay to walk through the charity thrift store a couple weeks later and see it displayed proudly on a shelf for $65!! Come to find out it was solid brass. I nearly lost my lunch. Oh well ,at least it went to a good cause.

Keep an eye out at yard sales. You never know when you might find someone as dumb as me!

 

[Mart]

lol Great story happydog ! Nice to see you here!!

Maybe if you had rubbed and shined it a genie would have come out

 

[~gd]

Before I became a foodie, I once found a big heavy gold mortar & pestle in the attic. It looked old and dirty, not something I wanted in my nice clean house, so I chucked it in the charity box. Imagine my dismay to walk through the charity thrift store a couple weeks later and see it displayed proudly on a shelf for $65!! Come to find out it was solid brass. I nearly lost my lunch. Oh well ,at least it went to a good cause.

Keep an eye out at yard sales. You never know when you might find someone as dumb as me!

Thise were often gifts to phamarcy [sp] people. Usually with a space to engrave the name. usually with the Rx symbol. The drug company that gave them as gifts often marked them with their logo often on the bottom outside surface, Fairly collectible by some people, for appearance only, never intended for use.

 

[ORChick]

My cousin, a pharmacist, had quite a collection of these ... in brass and ceramic, and in various sizes, from teeny tiny to quite large. They decorated her house, but weren't used.

 

[happydog]

Hey Mart! Nice to see a familiar face here.

Thise were often gifts to phamarcy [sp] people. Usually with a space to engrave the name. usually with the Rx symbol. The drug company that gave them as gifts often marked them with their logo often on the bottom outside surface, Fairly collectible by some people, for appearance only, never intended for use.

Thanks for trying to cheer me up, lol. The previous owners of that house were a wealthy older German couple and really knew what they were doing. After I started studying health and nutrition I groaned to think of the Vita Mix and the big-arm citrus juicer I gave away, and the hibiscus and passionflower and medicinal herbs I tore out to make a stupid flower bed. After I started gardening in earnest I remembered their 20 year collection of Organic Gardening I threw out. After I started baking bread I realized what those big old funny shaped wooden bowls had been for... I earned a Graduate Degree in Stupid that year.

It's not really a nice story I guess. The older couple had retired to sunny south Florida and built a beautiful home. He was a retired General and very brilliant, she was beautiful and beloved. Then apparently one or both of them got dementia and they were living like an episode of Hoarders. Their kids came and got them and took them back up north to live. Their beautiful home was in such bad shape they had to cut the price in half to get it sold. Good for me (as the buyer) but sad for their heirs. Nearly every room had to be gutted down to the studs. We filled up three of those big rolling dumpsters with the remains of their life before we could even see the real condition of the house. I found tons of letters and papers and photo albums in the attic and pieced together a lot of their life story. I learned a lot from them, mostly that I don't want my story to end that way.

Hadn't thought about them in awhile. Now I feel like I want a stiff drink. Or a walk outside in the sunshine.

 

[Mart]

Don't put yourself down that way. I also have that recurring feeling.

It's actually realising that you spent your life knowing futile stuff that had no purpose. I used to be really good at knowing celebrity stuff like who was married to whom and how many kids they had. Now I'm lost when I visit Perezhilton.

Doesn't it make your life great to constantly learn new stuff ? It does to me. I feel like I'm growing, like I'm becoming a better person.

cheer up!