Is the mortar dead? Long live the mortar!

Crushing something between two stones in order to eat it may have been one of the oldest culinary activities of humanity. In fact, it is very likely that this practice predates Homo Sapiens himself, as shown by the latest finds in Lake Turkana, Kenya, dating back 3.3 million years. Be that as it may, the task grew and evolved with us until it gave rise, all over the world, to mortars. However, the appearance of electric mincers and grinders cast doubt on the practicality of the mortar and, perhaps, its future.

Mortars of the world: kitchen and pharmacy musical instrument

First mentioned in 1550 BC, in the Ebers Papyri, mortars are estimated to have been in use as early as 6,000 years ago. Each culture developed its own, to cook and/or prepare medicines: in Mexico they have their molcajete and tejolote, made with the basalt that was once volcano lava, to make sauces and guacamoles, and the metate and metlapil, for grinding. traditional corn; in India they have a cousin of the metate, the pata varwanta, with which the tastiest sauces are made; in Japan, suribachi and surikogi, to grind sesame; in Senegal, the gen akk korr, equipped with a very long mallet, is used to prepare a lot of bases for stews and also sauces, among which is the sosu kaani, which scores very high on the Scoville scale thanks to the presence of the pepper Scotchbonnet.

As so many other women in the world did and do while working, Senegalese women usually sing to the rhythm of the mortar, something that would later happen with the pestle that the Andalusians bequeathed us and that was incorporated as a percussion instrument in jotas, fandangos and other folk genres peninsulares, although it is also used in the tamborito and the Panamanian cumbia.

It is clear that mortars are all over the world. They are even part of Slavic folklore, in which Baba Yaga, sometimes a kindly wise woman, sometimes a murderer of children who later eats, flies on a mortar. And what about Spain? Our territory is rich in mortars: the ceramic mortar from Manises, the marble from Macael, the Cordovan mortar, the olive wood mortar, the pestle, the dornillo.

Olive wood mortars

Manuel Serra, an olive wood craftsman, knows something about making mortars: he has been making them for more than 30 years together with his wife, Juanita Heredia. Asked if the mortars are in the doldrums, he answers forcefully: “mortars that I make, mortars that I sell. I think that young people are much more interested in artisan products or, at least, that is how I see it reflected in my sales”.

In his workshop in La Sénia, in Montsià (Tarragona), he makes mortars and many other objects from pruned olive wood. “We never uproot the trees to work their wood. We have an agreement with farmers who have olive farms and they keep the wood of the thickness that we need. They win, since the price paid for burning wood is almost half of what I pay them”.

Serra explains that olive wood of the farga variety is an ideal material for making mortars and other types of kitchen utensils. “It is hard and not at all porous, so it does not absorb food, as is the case with other woods, such as beech, which is scratchy when you put it in your mouth.” He details that first they draw on the wood what the mortar will be like on the outside, they turn it, empty it inside and sand it to give it a good finish. And to top it off: a layer of beeswax (which he obtains from local beekeepers) and mineral oils "which protect the wood, enhance the color of the olive tree's veins, and give it shine." He advises that after cleaning and drying it, add a few drops of vinegar or lemon to eliminate odors, and dry it again very well.

Surrounded by olive trees, Serra, like so many neighbors of his generation, began working on furniture when he was little. “Here, in La Sénia, the furniture industry has been very strong. There were up to 40 furniture factories. After learning, I established myself on my own and started a lathe shop, with 9 automatic lathes, but we also did craft work”. Aged 66 and retired, Serra, who is president of the Associació d'Artesans de La Sénia and a member of the Associació d'Artesans de les Terres de l'Ebre, says that working with wood still occupies him. “I am doing some things at home. I can't leave it. It's in my blood!"

¿El mortero ha muerto? ¡Larga vida al mortero!

Despite his taste for the job, he knows for a fact that there is a lack of generational relief. “My children will not continue. And although woodworking attracts a lot of attention, it is very compulsory, you have to spend many hours behind the machine to make the pieces. In addition, like all craftsmanship, you have to move forward little by little, with a lot of patience and calm. Of course: it is a very rewarding job. The pieces you make by hand are unique, no one will ever be able to make an equal one,” says Serra, who received the title of master craftsman in 2010. Likewise, he has the Artisan Denomination certificate granted by the Generalitat de Catalunya. (You can find Manuel Serra doing demonstrations at the Fira de la Fusta i el Moble, from October 16 to 17 in La Sénia).

Macael marble mortar

Almería has many jewels, but perhaps the most gleaming (with the permission of the sea) is the extremely white mortar made with marble from the Macael quarries. Antonio J. Navarro, from the company Vega & Navarro, has been making them for 21 years along with other marble products.

“Thanks to the hardness of the Macael marble –explains Navarro– it was formerly used to grind wheat or almonds and obtain flour. Today, its use is limited more to majadas and sauces. Its composition, calcium carbonate, makes it suitable for use in the kitchen; its hardness is ideal for crushing; and its cleaning is very easy. It also serves as a decorative element in our kitchens”.

Making a marble mortar has substance: “once the marble leaves the quarry and arrives at the workshop, we cut it to the right size to make the mortar. Then, it is squared so that it is at a right angle, it is emptied on the inside and polished or honed according to the desired finish. We will shape the outer part on the lathe, while we will work the inner part by hand with the classic butts. Before, the whole process was done by hand, with a pointer, gradina and chisel”.

Is a long life predicted for the Macael marble mortar? It looks like it is. Navarro says that his sales have increased in recent years. “It is still very useful in the kitchen, manageable and easy to maintain. Its beauty makes it a decorative element. It is an icon of the craftsmanship of our people”.

With less optimism, Navarro sees the possible generational change of the trade. “I started learning when I was 12 years old, working in a craft workshop and there, day by day, they taught me and other children the tasks of the trade, including making mortars. Today it is necessary to have some knowledge of marble work and the proximity of a master craftsman to learn from. As in other trades of this type, there are fewer and fewer artisans, so there is no clear generational change”.

Manises Mortars

It is perhaps the most famous of all Spanish mortars: the image of the Manises (Valencia) mortar, made of ceramic painted yellow, to which it seems that green parsley leaves have been stuck, is ubiquitous in kitchens all over the world. Spanish geography. It is not in vain that Manises has been one of the most important pottery centers in Spanish territory since the 14th century, when the municipality began to shine for its Andalusian-style golden and/or blue earthenware with a metallic reflection, which was copied in the Italian Renaissance.

From Cerámicas Monfort, distributor of traditional Spanish ceramics in Gata de Gorgos (Alicante) since 1956, they comment that the use of that ocher yellow began to be very common in 17th century Valencian ceramics, hence it ended up also giving color to this mortar . "We continue to sell it very well," they point out. There has been no drop in sales. People still love making ajadas, salsas, and aliolis in mortars! People of all ages buy them from us, from older people who have used them all their lives to young people with a taste for ceramics who remind them of their grandmothers”.

rambling mortars

The rambleño mortar is typical of La Rambla (Córdoba) and has a pronounced inverted cone shape that makes it ideal for large volumes of ingredients, as in the case of gazpacho. Rafa Osuna, from the Cerámica Rambleña distributor, explains that garlic or onions are currently mashed in them. "Its white color - she explains - is that of the native clay of La Rambla, to which a part of salt is added to accentuate it.

Unlike other mortars, it is possible that the use and production of the rambleño mortar is being lost. According to Osuna, everything seems to indicate it. "There are about 50 workshops left in the municipality, but they are not pottery workshops, rather they make more industrialized ceramics. In fact, there are only 3 pottery workshops left, with 5 potters and the youngest of them is 42 years old. Sadly, there is no relief generation in Rambleña pottery".

Regarding use, Osuna points out that it is possible that it has ceased to be an everyday tool in favor of easy-to-use electrical gadgets or mortars made with materials that are easier to maintain. "Because they are made with unglazed natural clay, rambleño mortars are impregnated with the remains of food. This complicates their conservation and one thing must be understood: they can be used with normal detergents and it will be clean, but the initial appearance will be darkened considerably. irregular due to the grinding of food".

the bolt

The dornillo, made up of a large wooden bowl that functions as a base and a mallet or machacaera, also made of wood, is a typical Andalusian mortar, especially from the Sierra de Cádiz, possibly related to the hortera, a wooden container used only as such today.

The dornillo has a very laborious production since hard woods are worked, such as olive or oak, and it is made from the middle of a trunk that must be shaped, hollowed out and roughed by hand with the help of of the pan, the gouge and the file. Artisans such as José Luis Godino and Francisco Adolfo Díaz continue to make them in Arcos de la Frontera and Alcalá de los Gazules, respectively.

In the dornillo, traditionally, recipes are made that have 'asentao bread' as a fundamental ingredient, that is, with bread from the day before that is soaked, often hot, using the water from scalding the tomatoes, as is done in Vejer to prepare a hot gazpacho. From Cuarto and Mitá, in their tribute to the dornillo, they explain that "it is intimately linked to the cuisine of hunger in rural areas: fresh soups or gazpachos, cooked soups, millers' garlic, potato garlic soups, asparagus gazpacho, quemones" , and also roteño starter, field garlic, Maimón soup, sanluqueño ajopapa and many more.

“But let's not fool ourselves –they remind us–, the dornillo is not exclusive to Cádiz and its province. It is used wherever there is hunger and something to grind. It is basic in many Andalusian recipes such as the already mentioned porras from Antequera, the pipirrana from Jaén or cojondongo, a typical summer dish from Extremadura, especially in Tierra de Barros”.

Are there mortars left in professional kitchens?

We cannot imagine a cook preparing 4 kilos of chopped meat using the strength of his muscles. Or if? We asked Maria Nicolau, from El Ferrer de Tall (Vilanova de Sau) and Pau Gascó, from Petit Pau (Barcelona).

Maria Nicholas. "At Cal Ferrer we still use it to make the Andalusian majá, the base for our nose and ear stew. However, I think there is no need to mythologize it. I am sure that if our grandmothers had had an electric mincer, they would have used it. No! you have to tear your clothes if we make the romesco with the blender! On the other hand, I do believe that there are preparations that are not the same with the pestle as they are with a machine. The broken ingredients in the bites make them have a more interesting texture and they bind better because of the same physics by which we crack the potatoes instead of cutting them when we make a stew. For that reason and because it tastes good! Anyway, how many people could say that they enjoy making a gazpacho with the mortar, as before? Better with a mixer, right?"

Pau Gasco. "In my 25 years as a cook, I have never seen a mortar in a professional kitchen and less since the appearance of the thermomix. Some cooks must use it, but I think it is something symbolic and it seems to me that the same thing happens in many homes. Yes It is true that for chopped meats, at home, sometimes it is more practical to use the mortar, but in my opinion, it has remained as something folkloric.What I am sure of is that in the professional field, the crushers have totally replaced the mortar However, it is also true that the texture that the machine gives you in a bite is much finer than the mortar and I, personally, prefer it. In my restaurant, and in others that prepare traditional cuisine revisited, we even pass them through a sieve to remove any pieces. It's true that the ingredients don't get so hot in the mortar, but electric grinders save significant time: while you're working, you can do other things. It's an advance."