What are the key features I’m looking for? Sure, they’re all pretty similar but there’s size differences and also wood v marble etc. Help me out here, please.
For a basic mortar-and-pestle, stick with ceramic or stone, in a small-to-medium size, as in 2- to 4- inch bowl diameter.
Basically, it depends on what you’ll be using it for. I have a small (about 2" diameter) marble set that’s perfect for crushing spices, pepper, and stuff like that. If you’re going to make pesto or guacamole or that kind of thing, you’ll need something larger…I’ve seen some really cool, primitive-looking ones made from volcanic stone. I’d avoid wood, as it will tend to absorb any oils and flavors…
If you’re looking to grind larger amounts of dry material, like spices for garam masala or something, just buy an electric coffee grinder and dedicate it to spice grinding.
My key recommendation is to buy them in an Asian market that actually has an Asian customer-base. You can often find them in larger home stores, but they tend to be wayyyy overpriced.
My mother brought one back from Thailand a few months ago. A nice, large marble one. It cost her 10 dollars. I saw the same exact one in a store (whose other goods were priced farily normally) in NYC for 75 bucks.
Definitely get a stoneware one over wood - a huge advantage in durability, ease in cleaning, and non-absorption of flavors or stains.
I have a couple of motar and pestles. Definitely avoid the wood for anything other than decoration. For herbs and spices I use a ceramic/stoneware one I pick up in the bargain basement of Crate and Barrell about 15 years ago - I forget what I paid for it, but it seemed very reasonable at the time. It’s easy to clean, which is a big deal.
For incense and stuff like that I have a big brass one I picked up at a flea market.
You can get them from flea markets, but be careful - they may have passed through a prior existance as something else like an ashtray or as part of home chemistry experiments or something else that wouldn’t mix well with cooking food. For cooking purposes I’d really rather buy new, so I know nothing really toxic has been in it.
My parents and my older brother have the same set, and I wouldn’t want any other type. A Coors porcelain one, made for chemistry, but new. It’s really nice and really cheap.
Word!
My partner and i were looking for a set recently, and found one at the local Crate and Barrel for about $37. That was way too expensive, so we left.
On the way home, we went to the local Asian grocery to get some chow fun noodles and bok choy, and there was an almost identical mortar and pestle for about 8 bucks.
Whoa!
Like I said, I don’t remember how much I paid for mine at Crate and Barrell, but it wasn’t $37! (I was a starving artist at the time). Maybe I got mine on sale - had to be no more tha $10, at most.. It was in the lower level “basics” store area - if they still have those.
Mortar and pestles are like woks - there’s some really overpriced fancy crap out there, but look behind that and you’ll great deals. I got my wok for $12 and the thing is solid
Features? Here’s what to look for:
The vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true…
I’m sorry…I couldn’t help myself…
I have a SMALL ceramic one.
I only use it for garlic and I don’t think I’d want a larger one.
For spices and herbs, I use a coffee grinder - dedicated only to spices and herbs. I use my other one just for coffee.
I’ve gotta second Broomsticks’s suggestion of a metal mortar/pestle set if you’re using it for incense. Some resins’ll stick like a bitch on ceramic ones, at least in my experience.
I also use metal for incense and I use a rough stone one (looks like some sort of volcanic rock, but it’s grey - seems hole-ier than sandstone) for hard seeds and dried herbs. I’ve tried the marble ones, but they’re just too smooth - the hard stuff just slides across the surface. I like the rough spots because it helps grind better. I can even do dried corn to make my own corn meal and wheat berries to make flour (if I’m feeling masochistic or teaching kids).
I’ll have to try the marble one for garlic, though. That sounds like a great idea. I bet it would be good for fresh herbs like basil, too.
I also have a cobalt blue glass one that’s just for pretties.
I’d go for volcanic over everything. What we’ve used for years (well, mom has. I hope that I inherit it in 100 or so years when she passes on (gimme a break, I don’t want to think about my mom dying)).
And seconding you don’t need a huge one if you’ll be doing smaller grinding - anything bigger than a couple cups of whatever and you should look at a blender or grinder of one sort or another.
I’ve never personally been happy with marble (growing up with volcaninc and all) though I dont’ think I’ve seen metal ones. Wooden ones are pretty but they make better decorations than usefulness.
If you dont’ have an asian market near you, also try the Mexican markets. I had a chance to buy my own volcanic about 15 years ago and didn’t (still regret it) and my last trip to Juarez I didn’t see anything at the Mercado.
If it is for cooking the bigger the better. There is no advantage in it being smaller and when you start mixing stuff in the mortar and then add half a cup or more of oil to make the marinade what is the use of a small bowl. Honestly you can do so much preparation in a large mortar and pestle without dirtying anything else. I can’t imagine that anyone would recommend a small one after having owned a big one for 20 years. Not wood.
I have a volcanic one with a shallow basin and broad, nearly flat pestle face called a molcajete (like this but without the “pig” detailing), which is what you’re talking about, I assume. In my experience, this isn’t that useful for anything that requires precise measurements, like spice grinding - a fair amount will get stuck in the crevices in the mortar. It’s better for things like crushing basil for pesto, mashing up spice pastes or salsa, that kind of thing. I used to use it for (laboriously) hand-crushing malted barley for homebrewing (fortunately a pound or less at a time, I don’t do all-grain batches) until I bought a Corona masa grinder.
I have a small marble one for spices; the smooth inside is easier to get the grains of spice out of.
There are some Thai mortar-and-pestle sets that are extremely cool - the pestle has a very wide, rounded base to it, and the mortar is deep, so you can mash up things with less worry of stuff flying out of it, and it works equally well for spices or for pesto, etc.
yeah, fer - most of my spice grinding I do in a small blender. When we use the m/p we are usually grinding chili pods or making a salsa. I think if we pushed it we could get three cups of liquid in there. 
There was one identical to mom’s on the WilliamSonoma site, but fifty bucks plus shipping. Eeep.
If you want stuff in a fine grind, I’ll agree with Trunk. You can get inexpensive coffee grinders this time of year. I’ve got a Braun coffee grinder like this one I use for spices and it save me a lot of work.
However, if you want a more “variable” size of spices, a polished marble set is the way to go. Buy new so you don’t have to worry about where it’s been.
I was at my local Asian Market, and saw some mortar and pestle sets, running just over 20 bucks. Curiously, they were labelled Mortgage and pestle.
I love those mis-translations!
Thanks, y’all.