[Sca-cooks] mortar and pestle questions

[Chass Brown]

I preferre my cast iron mortar and pestle. I can crush anything.. easily 
cleaned... use it alll the time.. we have 6 different types of them,.,. from 
porcelen, to lava rock etc. Each has its own use.... like i have a wooden 
one for each of my italian cooking herbs... but only that herb gets used in 
it.


Chass/ Charinthalis Del Sans

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kingstaste" <kingstaste at comcast.net>
To: <renechaisson at yahoo.com>; "'Cooks within the SCA'" 
<sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 22, 2008 11:06 AM
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] mortar and pestle questions


> Speaking as someone that has about half a dozen mortar and pestles, I 
> think
> I like my marble ones best.  They are polished smooth on the outside, and
> left smooth but unpolished on the inside.  They grind things to a powder
> easily, and I have different sizes - small ones for things like pills and
> seeds, larger ones for chunkier objects.  I got my big one on my 
> honeymoon,
> it weighs about 4 pounds and has a bowl that holds not quite 2 cups.
> I just acquired one that was someone's grandfather's, she says he used it
> for peppercorns mostly.  It looks like it is made from lava/igneous rock,
> and it is very porous.  I tried grinding a few black beans in it (because
> they were there, not because I needed ground raw black bean powder for
> anything) and I am still trying to get stuff out of the pits in the rock
> surface.  Cute, but not something I'll use often.  I have smooth wooden
> ones, they aren't good for much but crunching up very crispy things.  I 
> have
> a Japanese one with grooves on the bottom which is good for making a paste
> of certain wet herbs/vegetables, as well as another daikon shredder with
> points on the bottom, but that are for grating rather than pulverizing.
> I've also worked with porcelain bowls, they grind well but tend to be more
> fragile.
> Happy hunting, and you KNOW you won't stop at just one!
> Christianna