The masala brick, which was once a vital element of East Indian culinary tradition in Guyana, comes with a grinder or “stone” which was used to grind cooking ingredients such as masala into powder. Many masala bricks were imported to Guyana from India.
Due to the development of modern technology, this manual food processing tool has become antiquated. Nowadays, you can easily purchase ground masala at the supermarket. However, a tiny fraction of East Indians still use it, and swear that masala brick ground masala tastes better than factory ground masala!
Some East Indians also used or still use this product to grind coconut choka and pound achar.
Before the advent of electric blenders, the masala brick may have also been used to grind garlic, onions, peppers, tumeric, parched coriander, sarso, meti, cumin, etc.
This product has thus become a relic of a bygone era.
