While the primitive-looking mortar and pestle might seem like it would be better off left in the Stone Age, there are actually a number of good reasons to own one. It’s a low-tech multitasker, allowing you to blitz whole spices into powder and grind wet ingredients into pastes and sauces. Fans of these tools—including many professional cooks—say that the quality of the foods produced by a mortar (the bowl component) and pestle (the club-like component) are superior in flavor and texture to foods that come out of a food processor. Instead of simply cutting whole spices or herbs into tiny pieces, as the blades of a grinder or food processor might do, the pestle crushes them, extracting more aromatic oils and flavor compounds in the process. Finally, mortars and pestles are dead simple—there are only two parts to use and clean and no sharp blades to nick yourself on. The best versions are also nearly indestructible.
Since we last tested these tools, our favorite, the Frieling Goliath Natural Stone Mortar & Pestle, has been redesigned. So we decided to take a fresh look at mortars and pestles. We tested seven models, priced from about $13 to about $100, using them to grind peppercorns to different levels of coarseness, to make garam masala from whole spices, and to make pesto.
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