When you do searches online for mortar and pestles, you might get a little overwhelmed at the variety of materials and styles out there. And then you may even feel like this is just some new trendy thing that is going to blow away next month. But for those curious about why this item is getting talked about so much and how you might revolutionize your cooking with it, we have a couple notes for you as the reasons for this sudden surge of popularity are actually quite grounded. Of course, you can probably guess that here at TIKUSAN there might be a slight bias toward Japanese mortar and pestles but to help understand what you should be generally looking for in this recently revived cave-kitchen tool set, below are some things to consider before making your purchase.
Do We Really Need This Caveman Junk Today?
It's like almost 2023 and we have deep learning software that can render high quality pictures and videos for us with just a few keywords, cybernetic arms that make us coffee at cafes and R2-D2s with neko faces that serve us our food at restaurants so we can easily conclude non-USB compliant mortar and pestles that don't even connect to our smartphones through Bluetooth are just primitive and obsolete tools from ancient times, right? Well, let's discuss this because somehow according to a never-ending list of professional chefs, they remain not only useful but essential for the kitchen... But how???
One thing that is often said and very true about these old tools is that your contents inside are getting broken down deliciously well on a cellular level so the argument for using them goes to that dreaded scientific level pretty fast. But before the traumatic flashbacks of cramming on sleepless nights before biology and chemistry finals come rushing into our heads, just know by mixing your ingredients in a mortar and pestle that you end up with a desirable texture while releasing all the wonderful aromas and flavors possible with your recipe. This remains true even if you're simply preparing some sesame seeds but also obviously would include spicy delights like curry, salsas, pesto, avocado for avocado toast, hummus and more.
Mortar and pestles might require a little effort compared with all the electrical appliances with dangly cords that fall out of our cabinets and make them hard to close but they are the way to go the extra mile so that you'll be swiftly serving memorable and professional level dishes instead of food that kind of just makes you wish you could afford to eat out everyday. This highly contrasts with the so-called convenience of using a blender or food processor's auto-slicing and dicing blade which will not create any texture and basically leave you with just an "overdone" taste. But when you manually grind and mix your ingredients with a mortar and pestle, of course with the speed and force being applied with each stir or mashing movement of your hand, you essentially control quite precisely how mixed and mashed up it will be. So you end up being more "gentle" with your recipe than a mindless machine which will just turn everything into almost a watery liquid mush instantly. So, yes, this all means that humans, especially the cave dwelling sort, are still very arguably valuable even in today's artificial intelligent age on its way to outer space. Well, at least when it comes to making good food and those humans on Mars are going to need it in the future too we believe!
Stone Mortars
When the cave dweller thinks of crushing anything into bits, solid stone is an obvious choice and that could be true for your kitchen's mortar too. Granite or marble are strong and durable materials that let you use extra force to smash ingredients together in your mortar. This would be definitely an ideal situation for the task compared to ceramic that might chip or even shatter especially if our cave friend was stirring and pounding too hard! Of course, with smoother mortars, you would actually get significant extra exercise in your arm so that might be a nice bonus but you may want to focus on just cooking in the kitchen... since there are things like kitchen knives and breakable glass objects around... and due to some other stuff we will explain below!
A good rule to follow when buying a stone mortar or any mortar in general, is to find one with a surface that has some abrasive texture rather than being slick or even smooth because you'll end up wanting to increase efficiency to save time but also you'll find as you follow more recipes from around the world that timing and maintaining a certain pace is super important for the success of your meal. A smooth ceramic mortar without any texture would mean you need to work harder which further increases your already high chances of breaking the fragile material. Another bad thing about a smooth mortar is that your mix inside could slip and slide easily and as you'd also need to stir and mash with more effort, contents will just be wastefully flying outside of the bowl, leaving you with a fun mess to clean up afterwards. All bad things so just make life easier and find a mortar with a little roughness on the inside.
Japanese Mortar and Pestles
So here’s the thing. What if I told you, everything you knew up to this point wasn't exactly true? Sorry, secrets of mixing in bullet time with just your mind won't be shared in today's blog entry but there is a game changer that came to Japan from China... in 1000 A.D. so you know, kind of recent? Maybe most of you who follow TIKUSAN already know all about our two friends, suribachi and surikogi. These are just the Japanese versions of the mortar and pestle so they function in the same way. However, though similar, a lot of the stuff said above will change a bit. Namely, the thing about ceramic doesn't matter as much because with a Japanese mortar and pestle, you are using considerably less effort... but how? Oh, robots? Well, unless they are all hiding in the Egyptian pyramids, there really isn't any evidence robotics could be helping humans yet during the age of the Japanese mortar and pestle... but how would mortar and pestle-ing be made any easier in an age way before wi-fi???
Groovy Mortars
( Yep, I went there...<(_ _)> )
The inventors of what became the "Japanese mortar" made a few changes to the original design. First, they started working out in gyms (or outside somewhere in the 1000 A.D. equivalent of "gym" anyway!) instead of the kitchen so they dropped the heavy stone material and went for beautiful ceramic instead. Of course, maybe they noticed their mortars were not lasting a long time and got tired of cleaning up shattered pieces all over the floor, so at some point they added grooves inside which significantly decreased the effort and time required for grinding and mashing up ingredients. A complex pattern of the grooves was next standardized that works to push ingredients back to the middle of the mortar while you stir and mash. Notably, this design choice keeps everything from flying out so humans in the kitchen from any period of time can appreciate this upgrade.
The traditional Japanese mortar design was of course made with Japanese food in mind, so it is ideal for mixing both dry and wet ingredients. For example, you can easily make shiraae, a mashed tofu salad, as well as a Japanese sesame paste called nerigoma. Of course, a Japanese mortar is also super easy to use and efficient for making all the other things you would normally make with any other version of the mortar and pestle. Some just find Japanese mortar and pestles more beautiful and others find them lighter and more convenient to use than the heavier stone type. The stone type does have a certain charm and might make you feel more in touch with the Earth or the first humans or something so we definitely don't want to discourage those with certain preferences but the grooves of the Japanese mortar are quite superior at properly handling seeds or herbs to intensify potential flavors.
If you do find Japanese mortars to be aesthetically pleasing, you will also find it convenient that they double as beautiful serving dishes and even often have a spouted lip which is called a katakuchi to ease the act of pouring. Some even feature two of these lips which allow for you to pour from either side so that you don't have to be awkwardly turning it around and risk bumping other objects on the table.
As you can maybe tell, the Japanese mortar has it all thought out for us basically! But one thing that we mentioned earlier about the stone mortar that might be a lingering concern for you is the material, which indeed is not stone so of course you might worry it is too fragile. However, in the case of the Japanese mortar, the traditional techniques applied to the clay make it naturally resist water over time and thus more durable. The composition of the clay along with the efficiency of the grooves which require less mashing force, allows for this item to stay in your kitchen for a longer time. You also will not need and should not use a stone or very solid pestle because of this so always use the wooden pestle that should be included and for use specifically with Japanese mortars to avoid causing any damage to it.
To get your own Japanese mortar and pestle, check out our shop at the link below.