For a person who is fond of cooking, a mortar is an indispensable accessory in the kitchen, because freshly prepared spices are better than purchased mixtures and have a brighter taste and aroma. Modern manufacturers offer the consumer mortars of different sizes, shapes, materials and quality. The right choice depends on for what purpose and how often this culinary accessory will be used.
Pick your recipe
A rock
Stone mortars are suitable for grinding grains, seeds, nuts, fruits. Such mortars are used in India, Indonesia and Latin America for the preparation of snack pastas: guacamole, sambala, curry, masala. Mortars from basalt and granite have the highest rates of hardness, density and abrasion resistance. However, basalt is difficult to polish; therefore, the surface of the basalt mortar is heterogeneous. It is difficult to grind pasta and spices into a homogeneous state.
Mortars from granite lend themselves perfectly to polishing and have high hardness and strength. The same applies to such natural stones as jasper, agate, onyx and carnelian. Spices in such mortars are abraded to a state of powder, and pastes are smooth and uniform. Also, stone mortars are good in that they do not absorb water and do not react to the effects of fruit acids and natural dyes. The exception is marble, whose hardness is two times lower than that of other stones. In addition, it absorbs liquid and even reacts to weak acids such as acetic or citric.
The cost of granite and marble mortars is almost the same, therefore, focusing on the quality indicators of the stone, it is recommended to choose granite. As for semiprecious stones, mortars made of them meet all the requirements for quality and appearance, but their cost is quite high.
Tree
Wooden mortars are suitable not so much for grinding as for crushing cereals and seeds. In Japan, rice flour and starch are still made in large wooden stupas. A big plus of such accessories is their resistance to acids and alkalis. But the tree absorbs odors, water and stains with food colors, which is why your favorite accessory will crack sooner or later. When choosing a wooden mortar, look for one that is made from noble species of wood - it will continue longer if it is used infrequently. Most often on the shelves of shops there are mortars from olive wood. They are strong enough; they can grind leaves, herbs, seeds, fruits, vegetables and nuts.