Just like the locals - Latin-American cooking tools

Is no surprise for anyone that humans love tools. This goes ahead of loving; we need them. They help us to survive through history and now we use them to improve our daily lives. This also applies to cooking!

Inside of the Latin-American culture they have created their own tools in which some of them you will consider essential if you are trying to explore this new amazing culinary world. Therefore, today we will introduce two of the most beloved tools by the locals, pilón and majador de plátanos.

Pilón is a kind of wooden or metal mortar, used to crush grains or other things. The most common type of pilón is the wooden one, is made of artisanal wood, the set is two pieces. The first part is a vase shaped to place the object to be smashed, the second part is a hand-grabbed created to smash. Around south and central America the local population use this object to crush garlic, pepper, fresh herbs, and spices creating a paste to season the food they are going to prepare. Meanwhile in Puerto Rico they also use it to prepare mofongo as in Dominican Republic is meant for mangú, both dishes are smashed plátanos based. By last, the easiness to clean pilón is one of its best’s characteristics, only some warm water will be needed as the trend to not use soap is important to avoid it getting into the wood.

Majador de plátanos is a tool created after the need. Most of the Latin-American are a plátanos, also called tostones, lovers. During years the only way to let the plátanos flat was using other objects such as plates or the classical glass bottom. By the time, the locals created a simple tool to do the work. It consisted of two planks of wood, a big one to put the plátano over it and a second one smaller to smash with. But we know practice and time makes perfection and majador de plátanos is no exception to this rule. The latest version of this tool is still made by wood, but the shape has changed into a circular with both upper and lower being the same size with the only difference of the upper one having a holder to open and close. As experts into the plátanos world (add wink) we advise you to not apply much pressure, or you will have a puree. To end, the best way for your majador de plátanos to be cleaned is going over it with a wet towel.