Do clay pots really affect the flavor of a dish, or is this a myth?

[rotuts]

new to this thread.

 

@stephen129

 

if CCR has added flavor , it might be because the clay pot top is not perfectly sealed.

 

I can't imagine any clay pot adding flavor.

 

maybe some Lead if you are not careful.

 

what they add to any dish is :

 

1 ) a sense of History .  Tagine's work as a tiny oven , with some efficiency from the shape of the top

 

to re-condencse moisture back into the ' dish "

 

what clay pot cooking does do

 

for sure , 

 

is to provide to The Cook

 

a fine satisfaction in understanding them and how to use them

 

and collect them

 

SS is fine , just not so much for the 

 

je nes se pas

 

 any knife will work as well if equally sharp as another

 

but not so much for the feeling in the Hand

 

and all the other etc.  etc . etc.

 

 

 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

On ‎9‎/‎4‎/‎2019 at 7:58 PM, Anna N said:

I love my donabe which was a Christmas gift.  Donabe weather is just around the corner.  I know I have posted some of the dishes I made in this. I love that it is induction compatible since my range is induction.

 

Here is one.

 

 

Anna, which size is your Kinto donabe?  (Assuming, of course, you don't have more than one.)

 

 

[Anna N]

9 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Anna, which size is your Kinto donabe?  (Assuming, of course, you don't have more than one.)

 

 

I believe it is the 1.2 L. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

On ‎12‎/‎13‎/‎2019 at 6:05 AM, Anna N said:

I believe it is the 1.2 L. 

 

Thanks, and now I have one of my own.  It is a very pretty pot.  I was expecting the Kinko was Japanese but mine is actually from Malaysia.  I hope to put it to work sometime later on this week.

 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

In anticipation I have been reading up on donabe recipes.  What caught my eye was neko nabe from Japanese Hot Pots, Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat (p23).  Unfortunately I do not have a neko and amazon/Whole Foods was no help.  In this version of the recipe the neko is not actually cooked but flavors the clay pot.

 

[Duvel]

42 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

neko

Neko as in neko-chan (=cat) ???

[Maison Rustique]

I am new to clay cooking. I just got a Romertopf for Christmas and look forward to breaking it in soon. I am finding a wealth of information in the Cooking in Clay Facebook group founded by Steve Sando and Carolyn Tillie. If you aren't in that group, you may want to check it out. I hope I'm not breaking an eG rule by posting that.

Edited December 29, 2019 by Maison Rustique
typo (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Right up there with neko nabe, Ono and Salat have another interesting hot pot recipe (p137) which is eaten in the dark.  Your guests bring whatever ingredients they like but you don't get to see what they are sticking in the nabe.  "It can get a little bizarre, yes, but a lot of fun..."

 

Said to be popular among college students.

 

[makeamix41]

To be honest I don't believe in it. Maybe it also depends on what kind of clay pot is it..And I think that if it has an impact on dish flavor it is because of the temperature. I have a few clay pots and I have never noticed any flavor change.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I have not cooked in my clay tagine for at least six months.  On a whim I went over and gave the inside a sniff.  The tagine has a fragrance.

 

[TdeV]

Just purchased a used Romertopf, model No. 113 which is 4.2 Quart (4 litre) to replace a similar one which was cracked.

 

The new (used) pot has stains inside, perhaps a salt ring.

 

How would you recommend to clean it?

- spray it with EasyOff oven cleaner?

- soak in water and then heat to the limit of my oven (550°F)? Cook it for how long?

- don't try to clean it?

- other ideas?

 

 

Edited February 13, 2022 by TdeV
grammar (log)

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, TdeV said:

other ideas?

Use baking soda. Soak it overnight if you wish. You need about 3 tablespoons of baking soda per litre of water. Or you could scour it with dry baking soda on a damp cloth and then rinse it off. You will probably never be able to remove the stains. 

[nochefschoice]

Here in this land, clay pots are like a whole standard. While we've got a ton of steel saucepans and you know the whole cooking arsenal, clay pots are pretty common in probably every house that's got a family. Single bachelors homes - I don't think so if they don't cook.

 

The reason why it's so popular is because cooking in a clay pot kind of gives a different flavour to the food.

 

I'm really curious, how do you cook? Do you use a clay pot where you're from?

[liuzhou]

17 minutes ago, nochefschoice said:

Do you use a clay pot where you're from?

 

Often

[haresfur]

Clay pot cooking is pretty niche where I live but I use a few variations. I would be interested to hear what type of pots and what type of cooking you do.

 

I have a lidded terracotta pot that I made and generally used like a romertopf - you soak the pot and then put in a cold oven and ramp up to steam/roast the food. I have also used it on the stovetop but it has a crack that I haven't sealed yet (you can boil milk in it and it might seal the crack if it isn't too bad).

 

I use my La Chamba earthenware pot that makes beans I prefer to the faster pressure cooker method I use. I also have one of their open pans that makes decent Spanish rice in the oven. Probably similar to the Mexican bean pots Rancho Gordo sells, except for the shape.

 

I have a glazed stoneware bean pot that sometimes comes into service for baked beans but is usually used to store dog biscuits. Since it is not porous, the main difference from steel is heat retention.

 

My tagine is not earthenware so not the same as traditional ones. It is an industrial high spodumene clay designed to handle stovetop cooking with minimal porosity. There are a few potters who hand-throw high-spodumene flameware but you have to know what you are doing. There are also potters around, particularly in the southwest US who make functional micaceous pots like some of the Pueblo pottery. The mica helps avoid thermal shock. Not that the Pueblo pots, aren't functional, but they command a pretty high price from collectors.

 

Have a small sand pot I picked up in Thailand that can easily take stovetop. Not sure exactly how they are fired. Glazed on the inside. I don't use it that much but it worked out really well in the gas barbie to get a bit of smokey flavour into eggplant by putting woodchips and herbs on the flame.

 

I don't think the terracotta tortilla warmer I made quite counts as cooking but gets a fair bit of use. Sometimes I soak it first, but usually just put a dampened cloth inside and microwave it.

 

Oh, and I have some small terracotta pots with no lid glazed on the inside that were used to sell a brand of hummus. Mainly eye-catching, I guess. I do think they are cool and use them as small baking dishes sometimes.

[liuzhou]

I have a few

 

 

 

 

Different pots; different functions.

 

 

 

 

[KennethT]

9 hours ago, nochefschoice said:

Here in this land, clay pots are like a whole standard. While we've got a ton of steel saucepans and you know the whole cooking arsenal, clay pots are pretty common in probably every house that's got a family. Single bachelors homes - I don't think so if they don't cook.

 

The reason why it's so popular is because cooking in a clay pot kind of gives a different flavour to the food.

 

I'm really curious, how do you cook? Do you use a clay pot where you're from?

Where are you from?  Many cultures use clay pots, so I'm curious.