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How do you properly clean a brass mortar and pestle?

What would you do with a Mortar and Pestle?

  • I got a mortar and pestle for Christmas and I am looking for cool things to do with it. So far I've considered making homemade lip balm, but there must be more really cool things that I'm not thinking of. What would you do with a mortar and pestle?

  • Answer:

    The words "pesto" and "pestle" share a common root, or maybe "pesto" is just Italian for "pestle", I forget. Either way, "real" pesto is delicious, subtly different from the food processor variety. Though it might be hard to find so much basil this time of year, depending on where you live. It's fun to make at least once. My wife uses it to make a face thing (scrub? mask?) out of Adzuki beans.

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Inside a room that is completely and totally dark, you crush and grind a wintergreen Lifesaver.

Tube

Pretty simple but I use mine to crush herbs and spices for cooking. It really helps to bring out the flavor.

fenriq

Seconding pesto. There's an enormous difference in flavour and texture when it's all crushed together rather than whirred in a food processor. Spice mixes--make your own curry blends.

dirtynumbangelboy

Make your own curry pastes.

pompomtom

You could always do a medieval version of Will It Blend? using only the mortar and pestle. More realistically, I've had fantastic results making curry blends from fresh spices.

impluvium

I've made http://www.make-stuff.com/kids/eggshell_chalk.html The mortar and pestle is really the best way to grind the powder fine enough. Plus, I figure it's just calcium, so I don't have to obsess over cleaning it between that and real food.

cobaltnine

This may seem odd, but I use mine to grind my vitamin pills. All those stories about undigested pills in the porta poties makes me want to be sure I'm digesting as much stuff as I'm paying for

Redhush

Curry powders really pop when the spices are fresh and freshly ground. We buy most of our spices in whole form and grind when needed. Mustard, cumin, coriander, you get the idea. M&P sits right up there with the spices. Cooking Thai food from scratch requires several different compounds that are combined in various proportions. M&P perfect for muddling them together.

pointilist

If you do take up the pesto thing and you're in a place with a Trader Joe's, check out their deals on basil plants in the summer-- they're giant, and you get about as much on one of those plants as you do in a package of harvested basil.

NoraReed

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