Ancient Cookware, Authentic Mexican Lava Stone Molcajete, 8 Inches

I didn't expect how porous this molcajete is. It is very heavy, which is great for mashing, but hard on the countertops. I use this outdoors more often than for day to day cooking. I admit to being fearful of chipping the edges of the stone. If I get too mashy, I've had bits chip off.Great for rustic, backwoods, naturists. Great for old world cooking. Great for foodies who want to cook over an open fire. I highly recommend it, I would just suggest caution in intents for uses.

This thing is thick and heavy, but feels nice. Rough interior to promote things breaking apart. Cleaning is simple and easy.

Make no mistake, this is not as easy as using your electric coffee/spice grinder, but it is not at all hard. I love the way I can blend spices as I go; the aroma and a finger-tip taste test allow you to balance flavors like you simply can't do otherwise.You will need to prepare the mortar and pestle for use. The surface comes to you too rough; there is the likelihood of bits of grit knocked off the surface. I found that preparation was not as complicated nor as onerous as some have described. Use 220 grit sandpaper to knock down the course surfaces; the bowl, of course, but also all other areas on which you might rub — those rough bits are sharp. Once it's well sandpapered, measure out about a quarter-cup of rice. Starting with a small bit, grind it to a course meal. Don't use a bunch of pressure, let the stone do most of the work. That rice is tough stuff. Keep adding a little rice at a time until it's all meal. Then keep going until it's more flour like. It will take a while. Don’t try to rush it by bearing down, it'll just make you tired.Now you're ready to put it to use. Take a pinch each of cumin, coriander and sesame seed, two generous pinches of anise seed, and four or five each of whole allspice and de-stemmed cloves. Grind them in your new molcajete. Remove the seeds and stem from a serrano chile, chop and puree in the mortar. Now puree a garlic clove. Chop half a medium onion and puree half of it. Wow! This is getting good. Peel and pit three avocados, remove seeds from two roma tomatoes and dice, and rough chop some cilantro tops to taste. Mash the avocados in the molcajete and squeeze the juice from a lime or a half lemon over them. Fold in the tomatoes, cilantro and the rest of the chopped onion. Serve in the molcajete if using as a dip. If serving individually, sprinkle sesame seed over the tops. Serves six unless one of the six is me. In that case, five are out of luck. Now that's one master class guacamole made with the right tool.

My biggest issue with this purchase was the fact that it showed up with the exact tejolete (pestle) that they describe as those offered with cheap, imitation molcajetes. It was supposed to be a cylindrical, somewhat hourglass (thinner at center) shape as in the photo. Instead, I got a cone shaped one that is not as comfortable as the one they claim you will receive.The only other review that existed when I got my molcajete would have kept me from buying mine had it been there when I ordered it, but I don't think it's a fair review for a couple reasons.First, they describe a chemical smell and taste that they got in their food, along with grit from the stone from the molcajete. The odd smell that was present in mine when I opened the package was from the Mexican newspapers they used to pack it. A porous item like this molcajete will absorb smells, no denying that, but I seriously doubt the smell is chemical in nature.Second, and most importantly, they made no mention of having seasoned the molcajete before using it. This is the single most important part of using a molcajete the first time. If you do not season, you will get particles of stone in your food for a long time after first use. To season a molcajete properly you MUST, at the VERY LEAST:1) Soak the molcajete in water for at least two hours. let dry. (I put mine in the over at 200 degrees for a bit over an hour. Let cool enough to work with.2) Grind four 1/4 cup piles of dry white rice, from grains until there is only rice flour left. Each time you do this, the initial grey color the flour turns to should lighten until you eventually end up with a mostly white flour, showing that the stone peaks have been mostly ground down to a flatter interior surface. This is where grit comes from; If you still see grey flour, do a few more runs of rice grains until it comes out white. Make sure to brush the flour out each time and get the molcajete as clean as you can before the next grind. Grind as hard as you can, as this is what takes those stone peaks off! Your molcajete will only be as good as YOU make it!!!3) After the rice grinding, throw a small head of garlic, cloves broken apart but not necessarily peeled (it's all roughage for the seasoning), a 1/4 cup of cilantro and a tablespoon of sea salt (or any plain salt, but sea salt granules work well) in and do a complete grind until you end up with a well ground pulp. The molcajete will absorb the mash and start you on your way to a beautifully seasoned patina in your molcajete that will supply you with great food for generations if taken proper care of.I did these steps to mine. I admit, I'm not happy with the cone shaped tejolete (pestle) still, but I am happy with the molcajete itself, and very happy with the seller's customer service once I contacted them. (It took a while for them to respond, but they finally did.) There is absolutely NO smell left from the newspapers, though my advice to the packers would be to wrap the item in at least one or two layers of clean paper with no newsprint on it, otherwise many people are going to convince themselves they are smelling and tasting "chemicals" in the food.The reviewer also claimed the molcajete was not real stone, but instead a formed item made from made-made slurry of some sort. This is NOt true, at least in the case of MY molcajete. Nicely formed stone product, just as described. Volcanic rock looks odd, that's the way it is! This product is affordable for a very specific reason; it is not seasoned. YOU need to season it. Most molcajetes are that way. Pre-seasoned molcajetes are very expensive, as you can imagine, after the process necessary to season them. YOU have to work to make your molcajete what it will always be. If your seasoning is poor, or non-existent, the molcajete will be poor. If you take care and season well, it will be a treasured item in your kitchen that can be used for all sorts of things from prepping food to being a beautiful decoration.I would give this 5 stars had it not been for the poor tejolete supplied with the unit.

I am in love with crushing up my spices and pastes in my molcajete. Somehow it is much more satisfying than doing it in a mini food processor, pestos come out much smoother.Of course I had to grind rice in it a bunch of times, rinse and repeat, but that wasn't all that hard, and since then, toasted spices, garlic, ginger, chilies, oil, all get prepped in the molcajete. A quick rinse with hot water is all it needs to clean out.

Was a little disappointed that it was not completely symmetrical, but it does seem very much a hand-made kitchen utensil

This molcajete is rough enough to actually grind spices instead of pushing them around, and large enough to make a large batch of spice blend or a batch of guacamole. Just remember to season it or you will be eating grit.

Absolutely love this Molcajete! I am going to retire my black granite ones. This one works exceptionally well at grinding and is beautiful. I have found it easy to clean, too.

I finally have a molcajete. It is not to small and not to big. Very useful to make my own Mexican salsa.