On Dec 23, 11:39*am, Roughrider50 > wrote:
> I'm looking at buying a pestle & mortar(molcajete) for making tamales.
> The lady teaching this to my daughter says to be very careful when
> purchasing as some are very low quality & get very gritty in the
> grinding process. She emphasized that only a Mexican made one is high
> enough quality to bother with. I am looking at a couple on
> gourmetslueth.comhttp://tinyurl.com/34pvak
>
> http://tinyurl.com/32ofls
>
> Any suggestions from familiar with these items? Which is the more
> "authentic" the smoother or the rougher one? Or is this a non-issue?
> Or can one of you guys make a recommendation on where to to buy one.
> TIA

personally, I like the one I got at Crate & Barrel... It doesn't chip
like the old style molcajetes do... I remember using my grandmothers
and always finding the one chip of rock/stone that chips off sometimes
thinking it was pepper, not good. The one i got from C&B was about
$30.00 it's made out of granite and really smooth. It looks like the
old fashioned one and works really nice. You get all the spices out
of it, unlike the old style molcajete that left spices in the spaces.
As much as I wanted my grandmothers I like mine better.
chilichick