Old school Metates found in El Paso
Metates have been used by humanity for thousands of years. The need to grind down maiz and other grains in the Americas by natives was not only necessary but crucial to their survival. These beautiful stone slabs are still being found to this day in the arid deserts of the American Southwest.
As seen in the image above, a friendly El Paso neighbor has been collecting metates for years. You can see by the sheer wear on the metates that they used them a bunch of times and clearly someone was eating delicious handmade tortillas maybe a few hundred years ago.
The tradition of grinding spices to make mole and making nixtamal to grind down into cornmeal to make tortillas is still alive today. But it has been replaced by run of the mill machines to grind our nixtamalized corn and tortilla makes to automatically produce our tortillas. The one thing that we cannot replace is the delicious flavor that the metate gives to the corn and the mole. Anyone that has tasted mole or tortillas made from a metate can tell you the flavor is unique.
Not only does this old ass grinding rock look cool but it never breaks under normal use, you can leave outside forever, and you don’t need electricity to run it. You just need good old fashioned sweat and hard work.
Nowadays I have met many of the older generation, my grandma included that have these guys stuffed in their cabinet, or even have one outside in the backyard. My grandma always tells me she used to make the nixtamal with hers and also that us youngins don’t know what its like. Haha. Well she probably has a point! Grinding down nixtamal is not the easiest thing in the world but just in case you want to do it, I can promise you that the flavor is not only unique but amazing!
At the molcajete shop we want to provide you with the best metates you can get a hold of. They are imported directly from Mexico and are made of tradicional porous volcanic rock. Send us a message if you would like a special sized metate and we can make it for you. Lead time is usually 1 month since the trip and import takes time.
