Question
Julie Cannon
What type of hand motion or technique should be used for a mortar and pestle?
Answer
Well, what a great question. I just happen to have a couple of them behind me. And let me just grab one just as an example here. The first thing I recommend is that you be engaged with what's in the mortar so you know what it's doing as you're manipulating it with the pestle. Some foods will crawl up the sides. Oftentimes, the heavier, larger pieces stay down in the center of the bowl. And so you want to be very deliberate about what it is that you're doing to the food in the mortar. And you'll start out with both a pounding motion as well as a circular motion that might go both ways, clockwise and counterclockwise. Okay? And depending on where you are in the process and what the food item is doing, you might start out with some random pounding, and then as you identify items that are still larger than you want, then you go in with laser focus, and you start to hit those specific items to bring it down to a size that is acceptable to you. Okay? So that's a general approach. There isn't a one-size step-by-step approach that fits every food item or even every tool that you've got here. So be deliberate, stay engaged, and then realize the results that you want. Also keep in mind that depending on what it is that you're doing, that it can sometimes be difficult to get very fine results with a mortar and pestle. In which case you might want to put the product through a strainer that's the size that you want, and then you can pull out all the finished product, and then you can either return the bigger items, the particles, to your mortar and continue with just that, which makes it easier because you've got rid of all the other small stuff which gets in the way sometimes. Or you can use those bigger particles in something else where it might be acceptable to you. Okay? So those are some things that I consider, and those are some approaches that I take to using a mortar and pestle. Hope that's helpful.
