Rachel Laudan

Following up on an earlier post about turning cacao beans into chocolate, Lesley Téllez provides a timely lesson on what grinding chocolate on the metate (grindstone) is actually like. Pain shot through my knees as I attempted to get up from the floor. My legs wobbled. The backs of my knees felt slick with sweat, [...]

Now grinding seeds is always hard so it’s no wonder that Beatrice resorted to the coffee grinder, especially because she was working with a pestle and mortar, which, even if it is used to shear, is not as effective as a grindstone. Even if you have a grindstone, though, even if you know how to [...]

Chocolate is an oddity. It’s one of the few native American foodstuffs to make it immediately to the Old World. And now, when anyone who has any pride in their foodie credentials praises the fresh and natural, chocolate, one of the most elaborately processed and industrialized foods around, is given a pass and allowed into [...]