Seasoning a granite mortar and pestle, with intuition for the steps and their order

Seasoning a granite mortar and pestle, with intuition for the steps and their order - Purple Flowers on Brown Wooden Table

There are many procedures for seasoning a new unpolished granite mortar and pestle from Thailand.

Some sites recommend:

  1. Wash without soap and dry completely
  2. Crush garlic, maybe with salt and peppercorns. Let it sit for 30 minutes to 24 hours, then rinse, and dry.
  3. Add either wet or dry rice into the mortar and mash the rice to a paste/powder. Repeat until rice paste/powder remains white.

Another site recommends:

  1. Rinse with clean water (no soap) and let it air dry.
  2. Grind a small handful of white rice. Discard and repeat until the rice grinds white.
  3. Add 4 cloves of garlic, mash and muddle them together.
  4. Then add 1 teaspoon of cumin, 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper to the garlic. Grind it all together and discard.
  5. Rinse once more (without soap) and allow to air dry.

Cooks Illustrated just recommend dry white rice.

What is the best way to do it? What is the logic for each step and the sequencing?

seasoningmortar-and-pestle


Best Answer

The rice, salt, peppercorns and garlic aren't hard enough to polish the granite. There are hardness scales such as the Rockwell hardness scale and Mohs scale for minerals.

What you are really doing is grinding the granite pestle against the granite mortar. The purpose of having some material in the process is just to get the granite particles to mix into material being ground. The notion is avoid packing the ground off particles onto the surfaces of the mortar and pestle.



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How do I season my granite mortar and pestle?

Place two tablespoons of rock salt into the mortar. Grind the salt into a fine powder. Now your mortar and pestle is ready to use. As you use it, the stone will become more seasoned.

How do you prep a mortar and pestle set to season it?

If you have an unseasoned mortar and pestle, or one made out of granite/stone, then you need to season it before using. This is because the porous surface can release particles of stone and grit into your food upon first use. Seasoning preps the surface and removes any of these particles.

Does granite pestle need to be seasoned?

Grind up several cloves of garlic with the pestle, then add a teaspoon of salt and another of sugar, and finally some peppercorns. Mash this all up into a smooth paste and rub it around the inside of the mortar. Let it set for about thirty minutes, then wash it out with hot water and let it air dry.


How To Cure \u0026 Season Granite Mortar \u0026 Pestle/Mortar \u0026 Pestle Seasoning/Priority Chef Mortar Review



Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Images: Yan Krukov, Yan Krukov, Yan Krukov, Karolina Grabowska

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