Herbiberto García Rivas of the book, ‘Cocina Prehispaníca Mexicana’, dubs the molcajete as the second most important piece of the Indigenous Mexican cuisine, after the metate. Authors Bricia Lopez and Javier Cabral of the cookbook, 'Oaxaca: Home Cooking From the Heart of Mexico,' also exalt this cornerstone of the Mexican kitchen. “A salsa or guacamole made in a blender or food processor will never replace the velvety, chunky texture of a salsa made in a molcajete,” they write. “It is Mexico’s premiere Pre-Hispanic piece of cooking equipment that hasn’t changed for thousands of years.”  

Because the truth is, once you make a salsa in a molcajete, you may never go back. The rub and crush of its gritty stone walls open up a breath of flavors from every ingredient — from nut, to seed, to chile and garlic — bursting open their fragrance and fusing together notes and characteristics with a harmony that sings.

Pictured: Yolanda Juárez Gutiérrez, Don Enrique's mother-in-law and local salsa whisperer.

The molcajete, a Nahuatl word meaning “sauce dish” and known as “mortar and pestle” in English, is an Indigenous technology that was engineered in what is known as the Cenolítico Superior era, between 7000 BCE and 5000 BCE, roughly around eight thousand years ago. During this era people relied namely on foraging, and diets consisted largely on seeds and fruits. The molcajete is shaped round and concave, a bowl held up by three or four legs, that is made complete with the hand tool called tejolote — together they’ve been used to grind spices, seeds, chiles, nuts, herbs and more for millennia. Traditionally and historically, molcajetes are made with a porous volcanic stone, rich in minerals like iron and magnesium, and it gets pounded and carved carefully into the shape we are familiar with today.

We partnered with artisan Don Enrique of San Salvador El Seco, Puebla, on two contemporary Molcajete designs that'll not only help unlock layers of flavor in your favorite dishes, but also look great displayed on the kitchen counter, with their sleek, rounded look. Our original Molcajete is perfect for families or parties, while Molcajete Chico makes enough guacamole or salsa for two.

Artisans who work with stone are proud of their craft, and are called canteros. Canteros can create a plethora of works with stone, but at the heart of their craft is the knowledge of making a molcajete with precision. Don Enrique tells Masienda that shaping a molcajete is no easy feat, and can vary in shapes and designs while retaining the same core structure. Don Enrique, who comes from a lineage of canteros, has been making molcajetes since he was around 13 years old, and the over twenty years of experience have made him a master in his craft. It’s a fine art shaping a molcajete, there are a variety of tools one uses at each stage, and certain weight to be attributed to each. One wrong plunk, and the sculptured rock cracks.

Once home with a new molcajete it is wise to cure it, Don Enrique says it’s because it’s still dusted by the earth and can have some loose grains of rock. Though some methods vary online, the most common, practical and effective way to do this is to add some spoonfuls of dry or raw grains of rice into your molcajete along with salt and grind until you have a powder. It’s common for the powder to look gray at first, this is the method at work, picking up the dust and pieces of rock being released. Remove the powder and grind new spoonfuls of rice and salt until they no longer have a gray hue and hold their white color. Be sure to grind with all the edges of the tejolote that you’ll use to triturate with. This will be the arm workout to end all arm workouts. Rinse well and scrub using a brush, try to use an escobeta de raíz, or root brush made with agave fibers, and reserve it only for scrubbing your molcajete for maintenance. If you can’t find one, a regular dish washing brush will do fine––just do not add soap while you cure. Don Enrique says soap is okay only after the initial curing, as to not leave the taste of soap caught in its porous texture. Some people, like Lopez and Cabral of ‘Oaxaca’, recommend another step in curing: adding a chile like jalapeño and a clove of garlic before the last rinse. Once you have given your molcajete its final rinse, let it air dry before you place it out on the counter in all its decorative glory. Between uses, scrub with your brush and use a soap if you’d like.

You may notice the colors of the molcajete vary slightly, this is due to the unique expression of each volcanic rock, ranging from darker to lighter shades of gray. Each molcajete exhibits an organic range of the many volcanoes that exist on Mexico’s terrain, their eruption rumbling from the core of the earth, that when shaped through expert hands lead cooks to the very heart of the land’s cuisine.