mortar and pestle
Also known as mortars & pestle
equipment consisting of a bowl in which substances are ground using a pestle
AI overview
A mortar and pestle is a kitchen tool made up of a bowl (the mortar) and a handheld stick (the pestle) that you use together to grind and crush ingredients into smaller pieces or powders. It's useful for breaking down spices, herbs, and other substances into the form you need for cooking or other purposes.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Article
A mortar and pestle is a set of two simple tools used to prepare ingredients or substances by crushing and grinding them into a fine paste or powder in the kitchen, laboratory, and pharmacy. The mortar (/ˈmɔːrtər/) is characteristically a bowl, typically made of hardwood, metal, ceramic, or hard stone such as granite. The pestle (/ˈpɛsəl/, also US: /ˈpɛstəl/) is a blunt, club-shaped object. The substance to be ground, which may be wet or dry, is placed in the mortar where the pestle is pounded, pressed, or rotated into the substance until the desired texture is achieved.
Mortars and pestles have been used in cooking since the Stone Age; today they are typically associated with the pharmacy profession due to their historical use in preparing medicines. They are used in chemistry settings for pulverizing small amounts of chemicals; in arts and cosmetics for pulverizing pigments, binders, and other substances; in ceramics for making grog; in masonry and other types of construction requiring pulverized materials. In cooking, they are typically used to crush spices, to make pesto, and certain cocktails such as the mojito, which requires the gentle crushing of sugar, ice, and mint leaves in the glass with a pestle.