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Marble mortar & pestle on a cutting board with prep tools and ingredients behind

How to Prepare a new Marble Mortar for Its First Use

This technique is performed to remove any marble stone grit before your first use so that grit does not get in your food.
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Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes

Tools Used in this Recipe

  • Marble Mortar & Pestle
  • 1/4 measuring cup (3 tablespoons is equal to 1/4 cup)
  • Kitchen knife
  • flexible spatula
  • Clean kitchen towel

Ingredients

  • 3 Tbls Coarse Salt or an equal amount of uncooked white rice
  • 4 cloves Garlic
  • 3 Tbls Baking Soda

Instructions

  • Rinse your new marble mortar and wooden pestle or a dish brush well. Dry both the mortar and pestle thoroughly
    Rinsing mortar with water
  • Grind with the coarse salt to the mortar and start grinding with the pestle. Press and crush the salt by rotating the pestle in a circular motion and bring the salt up the mortar sides to crash salt against the entire bowl interior.
    Continue to grind the coarse salt for several minutes, until the entire bowl has been scrubbed with salt thoroughly. Tip the mortar for a better angle to scrub the sides of the mortar bowl.
    3 Tbls Coarse Salt
    Grinding coarse salt in a marble mortar with a wooden pestle
  • Discard this salt.
    Removing & discarding crushed salt from a new marble mortar
  • Garlic Paste: Roughly slice 3–4 cloves of garlic then add to the mortar. To crush, tap the cloves a few times to start to break up the sliced cloves.
    Add 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of coarse salt. Continue in a circular or rotating motion with the pestle in the bowl base, then up the sides. Once the garlic is fully crushed to a paste and starts become one and/or slip away from the sides of the bowl you can remove the garlic (aflexible spatula works well for removing garlic paste).
    4 cloves Garlic
    Adding garlic to crush in the mortar
  • Discard garlic.
    Removing garlic paste with a flexible spatula.
  • Rinse the mortar and pestle. Dry thoroughly with a towel.
    Rinsing mortar with water
  • Grind Baking Soda: Add 3 tablespoons of baking soda. Then add water a little at a time until it forms a thick paste with the baking soda. Press and rotate the pestle in the bowl base and up the bowl sides to thoroughly clean the mortar bowl interior.
    3 Tbls Baking Soda
    Scrubbing mortar with baking soda and water paste using the pestle
  • Rinse the mortar and pestle thoroughly until no baking soda is left and the bowl and pestle feel and look clean. The mortar bowl will still feel rough as it should, but a little less ridgy than before this process.
    Dry both really well with a towel and set the pestle if made of wood on a dish rack or across the top of the mortar bowl so the wood will thoroughly air dry on all sides
    Ready to use marble mortar and wood pestle on a cutting board