Masienda Molcajete

A molcajete is essentially a Mexican mortar and pestle made out of volcanic rock. If you’ve ever made guacamole just by chopping up an onion or chopping up a chile and mixing it with avocado, if you compare that to the flavor you get out of pounding those same ingredients in a molcajete, you release much more flavor. When you go in with a knife, you’re basically shearing the cells apart, so maybe some flavor gets released, but a lot of the cells end up staying intact. Whereas when you go in with a molcajete, it’s like Godzilla’s coming in, stomping around. Everything gets crushed, all the flavors inside get released. You get much more flavorful salsa, much more flavorful guacamole.

I use it as a spice grinder also. I do have an electric spice grinder, but I find that with the cleanup time and the setup time for a spice grinder, the molcajete is the faster way to do it — you just drop them in there, grind them for 30 seconds, and then you rinse it out and you’re done. You don’t have to worry about taking it apart or anything. It’s a great tool for kids also. I have a 4-year-old and an 8-year-old. If I have, say, a ton of ginger I want to chop up for a stir fry or a curry, I can just drop it in the molcajete and give my 4-year-old the pounder, and he’ll just sit there and pound it. It’s really fun for him, and it actually helps in the kitchen.