Cooking in Clay Pots: Sustainable, Traditional, and Cool

Cooking in Clay Pots: Sustainable, Traditional, and Cool

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Neolithic cooking pot

Does this seem like a pot you’d cook dinner in? Soup, presumably? This 6000 yr outdated clay pot was just lately retrieved from a bathroom in Denmark. A neolithic householder had cooked seafood in it, in line with the evaluation fabricated from meals residues scraped off from the within. Cooking in clay has been round for a protracted, very long time.

Porous clay retains and releases flavors. I think about every thing cooked in that pot 6000 years in the past tasted like fish. I’d advise trendy cooks to save lots of one or two clay pots just for seafood. And preserve your dessert ramekins for dessert solely – you don’t need your creme brulee to style like garlic custard.

ancient greek charcoal stove

How about this historic Greek setup? With the exceptions of the skillet and the grill, the entire range and the pots are fabricated from clay. Clay retains a gradual, gradual warmth going so long as the gasoline lasts. The historic Greek clearly anticipated to cook dinner soup, stew, or pottage within the three pots poised on these funnel-like chimneys. I’ll wager the entire thing bought scorching sufficient to burn the hand. Since cooking in clay is a low and gradual course of, they should have began cooking early within the morning to be on time for lunch.

Related: can clay jugs filter water?

Dug out from the earth itself, clay wants affected person processing to yield clear, malleable materials. Most clay pots want a one-time preliminary seasoning in an effort to cook dinner out the style of uncooked clay. And they’re fragile. They should be shielded from thermal shock to stop cracks. Drying one isn’t a matter of wiping it out with a dish fabric; it needs to be air-dried to stop mould. And except you’re fortunate sufficient to reside close to a potter, you possibly can anticipate to pay properly for a beautifully-turned out tajine or Romertopf pot.

modern tajines

Unless you fly out to Morocco, the place you possibly can decide up a conventional tajine like this one within the souk:

moroccan tajine in souk

So why hassle to cook dinner in clay when you possibly can decide up all of the metallic cookware you want in your neighborhood grocery store?

First, taste. Anything cooked in clay tastes higher. If you respect conventional meals cooked low and gradual, you’ll benefit from the deep flavors and textures that clay pots grant. Slow, even warmth ensures that the components’ flavors bloom and mix, and that meals requiring lengthy cooking, like beans and hard cuts of meat, emerge from the pot tender and juicy.

The extra usually you cook dinner in a clay pot, the higher the meals from it tastes. To put it poetically, the clay retains a few of the soul of the meals – the flavors of spices and fat – which it releases to the subsequent potful. A well-used and cared-for clay pot, even a easy tagra just like the one beneath, turns into a treasure over time. (The picture reveals slow-cooked salmon and lemons.)

slow cooked salmon in tagra

Then there’s the satisfaction of dealing with a pot produced from sustainable prime materials; particularly if the pot is gorgeous.

Clay pot types differ rather a lot. Tajines, for instance, require little or no or no liquid for stews or braised dishes. Cooking vapors condense inside their conical tops and drop again down on the meals, leading to meals with undiluted taste.

Romertopf pots are one other particular sort, with their glaze and two elements. Being soaked earlier than cooking begins, the closed Romertopf releases steam across the meals inside, producing deliciously roasted, juicy hen and meat. (To create a golden, crisp crust, you take away the highest and cook dinner the dish an additional 20 minutes.)

Romertopf clay oven pot

Cooking in clay takes longer, since you begin with low warmth and steadily enhance it. But clay retains warmth for a very long time, which ensures that the meals stays scorching for a very long time after you are taking the pot off the range or out of the oven.

There are clay pots for each use. Stews, soups, and beans are the primary meals that come to thoughts, however there are conventional clay vessels for casseroles, frittatas, baked potatoes, bread types and even custard cups. I really like the pot that Green Prophet’s founder Karin Kloosterman made in her personal kiln.

karin kloosterman bread cloche

It may make slow-cooked stew or soup, however I desire to make use of it as a bread cloche. Here’s the bread:

bread from karin kloosterman's pot
If you reside inside attain of a potter, or journey to locations the place clay pots are made domestically, purchase them there. Where I reside, there’s a warehouse that imports housewares from Morocco. I’ve purchased tajines and tagras there. A heavy guvec stew pot on my shelf got here from Turkey. I’ve additionally discovered clay cookware in a stylish store within the native mall. Otherwise, you possibly can order clay pots on-line through Amazon, Etsy, and comparable websites.

You don’t want a unique spices and herbs ordered on-line to make good use of clay pots. Below is a hen tajine I cooked just lately. Just hen, veg, and the bottom spices I preserve round: cumin, turmeric and paprika. I may have substituted thyme, bay leaf, and a splash of white wine simply as simply.

chicken tajine

Regarding security and worry of lead in glazed pots: all cooking pottery offered within the U.S. is regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. If you want to make use of a gradual cooker on these chilly winter days, do not forget that all of the inserts of gradual cookers are fabricated from glazed clay, so that you’ve been cooking completely safely with what’s mainly a clay pot.

Unglazed pots are nice.

Don’t cook dinner in vintage pots you decide up in yard gross sales. Keep them for show. If you’re decided to cook dinner in an outdated pot – except it’s your Grandma’s acquainted, treasured and well-used one – purchase a lead take a look at in your native ironmongery shop and apply it to the pot.

For an authoritative e-book on cooking in clay, I like to recommend Paula Wolfert’s traditional, Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking. In it the commonest varieties of clay pots are detailed, with worthwhile tips about dealing with clay pots, cooking various kinds of meals, and incidental recipes like preserved lemons and tomato paste. The e-book contains lists of meals sources and clay pot sources. The bibliography is price going by. The recipes largely replicate the meals of Morocco, Turkey, France, and Italy.

Follow Green Prophet for scrumptious recipes cooked in clay (or different) pots:

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