this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2024
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Food and Cooking
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Grinding uncooked white rice is the vintage method for cleaning granite mortar and pestles, but it isn't terribly effective at getting them clean. These days, that method is mostly for "seasoning", preparing a mortar for use by grinding off any leftover bits of unpolished stone so that they don't get incorporated into any of the food you want to grind.
Since we stopped putting lye in soap, the modern cleaning method is hand-washing with warm water, a mild detergent, and a stiff-bristled brush before towel-drying thoroughly. Granite and marble actually have a relatively low porosity, so washing the soap out with water isn't as much of a challenge as it would be with highly porous volcanic stones like pumice, but it's still best to use an unscented soap so there's no fragrance to be left behind.
If your problem is specifically a rancid garlic smell you want to neutralize, then try the following:
Use 1/4 cup of baking soda and 5 drops of dish soap, then add just enough water to make a paste. Grind with the pestle and be sure to coat the sides completely. Then add 1/2 cup of vinegar and stir until the sides are coated in foam. Let sit about 5 minutes, then rinse with hot water and dry thoroughly.
*takes notes* ty ty
Edit: I learned how to escape in markdown or whatever this system is. ๐๐ผ
No problem!
Did you have any luck getting that mortar and pestle cleaned?
Added links to "before" images. Will update after it dries to include "after".
I'm a day late. Sorry about that.
No worries! Looks like you really had your work cut out for you there!
The m&p was totally dry this morning so I took "after" photos and added them to the Google album. Still some darker spots but better than it was before.
Looks pretty usable to me!
My sniffer isn't 100% today but it seems not to be malodorous after the bath. I may try seasoning it tonight. Thanks again for the advice! โ๏ธ
Yes, it was pretty gross. It all started when we went through a phase where all the fresh garlic we were buying had mold in it. After a few weeks we gave up and went back to powdered garlic, so our m&p sat around and occasionally got various soups slopped on it. That last part miiight be my fault.
Not yet. What a lazy butt I am. I'll probably try it tomorrow. I will add some before & after pictures.
Lye would only be used in the soponification of oil in hard or bar soap. Sodium hydroxide is used for soft soap. So if that's something you're looking for, I'd recommend Dr. Bronzer's Sal Suds. It's specially made for dishes and laundry as the reaction is 1:1. This is in contrast to bath products (ie bar soap or liquid soap, not like dove but like ones you could get at the farmer's market, etc), which do something called super fatting. Super fatting is an out of balance reaction, leaving some unsuponified left over oil for moisturizing. Sometimes, laundry bars and KOH soft soap can even have a reaction that would leave a very small bit of lye or Sodium hydroxide unreacted for cleaning purposes, only sometimes. That's why it's not recommended to use them in the shower as they can be drying on the skin.
I realize you're referring to detergents in your post, but I thought I'd clear that up. I make soap. Lol.
Dr. Bronzer's Sal Suds is pretty great and it has a very subtle pine smell that doesn't stick around.
edit: clarification