Mortar & Pestle or Khalbatta as called in Hindi, is one of the best kitchen tools used in most of the Indian Kitchen since ancient times.  Please watch my video to see the process of curing and seasoning newly purchased Mortar & Pestle.

Method of Curing / Seasoning newly purchased Mortar & Pestle (Khalbatta) –

  • Take a large and deep utensil.  Add sufficient amount of water to dip the Mortar & Pestle.
  • Dip the Mortar and Pestle in the water.
  • Using a wire scrubber, scrub the internals of Mortar properly.  Do the same for Pestle.  Rinse it with clean water.  Keep rinsed Mortar & Pestle under the sun so that they dry properly.
  • Add half a cup of any ordinary rice in to the Mortar and crush it by continuously rotating/crushing by the Pestle.  Rub it from all sides of the internals of Mortar.  This process may take 20 to 25 minutes until the rice is crushed to coarse/fine powder. 
  • Remove this crushed rice powder in a plate.
  • Add second batch of rice in to the Mortar.  And continue the same process again until the second batch rice is crushed to powder.  Remove this rice in a plate and compare the difference between the first and second batch of crushed rice.  First rice batch colour may be grey in colour and second rice batch colour may be white.  If it is white in colour and we can call it good before proceeding to the next step.  If the second rice batch colour is still grey, then repeat the above step for the third time.
  • Take fresh water in the same large and deep utensil.  Dip the Mortar and Pestle in it.  And scrub them thoroughly using wire scrubber.  Rinse it with clean water after scrubbing is done.
  • Add 8 to 10 cloves of garlic, 2 tsp of jeera (cumin seeds) and 2 tsp of kali miri (black pepper corn) in to the Mortar.  Crush it properly using the Pestle.  Keep rotating the Pestle from all sides of Mortar internal.  Discard this paste.
  • Again, scrub and wash the Mortar & Pestle thoroughly using fresh and clean water.
  • New Mortar & Pestle is cured and seasoned properly.
  • And Mortar & Pestle is ready to be used.