Zassenhaus3-Piece Mortar and Pestle Set, Cast Iron Grinder Set for Spices and Seeds, Large, 3-Inch

This 4-inch mortar and pestle is easy to handle, use, and clean. Perfect when you're want something quick and rustic. If you need lots of spices, this small mortar can’t handle them all at once. With the matching nested cast-iron bowl it comes with you can crush one type of spice at a time then transfer each into the bowl to mix. The mortar has a spout for pouring and for resting the pestle. Mortar takes small batches such as peppercorns or dried chillies, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, cardamom pods, star anise, clove, lavender, saffron, garlic, lemon zest. Elegant enough to bring to the table. Bigger batches of spices, curry paste or pesto need a bigger mortar or you might resort to an electric coffee grinder or Vitamix blender—but electric blades won’t give the same aroma and flavour—they can grind and chop but this mortar and pestle crushes it. Cast iron is virtually indestructible—hand wash without soap to maintain pre-seasoned finish.

I was looking for a smaller-sized mortar & pestle to use for grinding herbs in the kitchen. After reading many reviews, I decided on a cast iron model rather than granite, marble, other stone, porcelain, stainless steel, or glass materials. Too many reports of stone pieces breaking, getting stone dust in the food, etc.I am very happy with this Zassenhaus 3-piece set. The pieces are very sturdy and heavy, with a coarse finish that lends itself to the grinding operation. The finish is holding up well so far; no problems with rust. I was worried that the amount of spices I'm grinding might get lost in a larger 2-cup mortar compared to this 1-cup size. In retrospect, a larger size would have probably worked okay, though this smaller size will meet my needs for now. It would certainly be too small for mashing up avocados but that was not my goal. I haven't really used the additional third piece, the extra bowl that comes with the set, for much though it may come in handy at some point.

This was a good buy because the set is 3 pieces of cast iron. There are 2 bowls, 1 in which to grind on and the other to hold the ground herbs and spices. I have used it mainly for saffron and green cardamom pods and for those this set works great. I like using a mortar pestle for certain herbs and spices because it opens up the spices for more taste and fragrance. Grinding in an electric grinder is good for some things but not for all. This set also looks really good in my kitchen.

This is real, thick cast iron. It's solid and much heavier than its size would make you think. It's definitely not going to fall apart even with rough use. It will probably break anything under it if you set it down too hard though.

When I saw the product online thought it was kinda expensive, but its worth every penny. Easy to crush spices, garlic, ginger........I clean it with water,dry it with a cloth and like any cast iron I heat it on the stove top to make sure that its completely dry.

We received the product without any issues. It looked nice and had a good sturdy feel to it with the weight. Unfortunately it is only made for looks and not any practical use. After a couple of uses with herbs, it functioned fined grinding them up, it got cleaned. It was washed by hand and even towel dried. The next day it already had discolorations on the mortar primarily, the pestle was less noticeable. Trying to get it off and reclean it, even including baking it dry on low heat still results in the same so if you want to actually use the mortar and pestle I'd highly recommend not buying this one.

Practical, decorative and heirloom quality

Companies like this make it a pleasure to order from Amazon. Great product, great customer service, would order from again anytime, and recommend to my friends. Thank you!

Noch zu wenig Erfahrung; zu neu

Love it really does a great effortless job would highly recommend... the weight of the pestle makes it so easy to grind its top quality ...

È decisamente un bel mortaio. È in ghisa, ed è bello pesante. Non è enorme, ma sufficiente per piatti casalinghi.

Great item

Ich war erst skeptisch. So klein? Bin bis jetzt nur größere Mörser gewohnt gewesen und die waren aus Holz . Wenn es darum ging etwas mehr und härtere Gewürze zu mörsern war es schon eine Herausforderung. Mit diesen kleinen Dingern sind z. B Zimstangen, Piment udgl. um einiges besser zu bewältigen. Das bringt so gar richtig Spaß. Und zu klein sind die Dinger auch nicht. Die Tiegel liegen gut in der Hand und der Stößel ebenso. Rost: Metall rostet, aber wenn man sich darauf einstellt ist es überhaupt kein Problem.Also: ich bin begeistert.