Carolynn Palmer on wed 22 dec 04
When I visited a site selling tagines and accessories, I found they sold a
cast iron "heat diffuser" - what can you tell me about its use?
Is it placed directly on the burner (I have an electric stove - will it work
on it?) and then is the tangine (pottery cooker) iplaced directly in contact
with the cast iron "diffuser"?
Do I have to have the "diffuser"? or is there a substitute for it. Suppose I
place my tagine in the oven on a cookie sheet for cooking?
I am wanting to try this type of cooking and need help from experienced
cooks/potters.
Oh, I intend to make my tagine from my usual clay body and fire it to cone 6,
glazed inside and out - is this okay?
Please answer me off-list so as not to clog up Mel's life any further.
Thanks in advance! Carolynn Palmer, Somerset Center, Michigan
owlpotter@aol.com
PS website I visited:
http://www.shop.com/amos/cc/main/ccn_search_catsa/st/tagine/sy/products/GBAP/1
Lori Leary on wed 22 dec 04
Carolyn,
I used to use a diffuser when I had a Chemex drip coffee maker (made of
glass). I used it with a gas stove and had no problems. ( The Chemex
survived the stove, but not me!) I'm not sure about using diffusers
with electric stoves. I would think a diffuser would be necessary for
use with a tagine.
As for clay body...I have only seen them made of earthenware. Do you
think a ^6 claybody would be too tight for the thermal changes produced
during cooking?
Hope this helps,
Lori L.
recipes coming soon.....
Carolynn Palmer wrote:
>When I visited a site selling tagines and accessories, I found they sold a
>cast iron "heat diffuser" - what can you tell me about its use?
>
> Is it placed directly on the burner (I have an electric stove - will it work
>on it?) and then is the tangine (pottery cooker) iplaced directly in contact
>with the cast iron "diffuser"?
>
>Do I have to have the "diffuser"? or is there a substitute for it. Suppose I
>place my tagine in the oven on a cookie sheet for cooking?
>
>Oh, I intend to make my tagine from my usual clay body and fire it to cone 6,
>glazed inside and out - is this okay?
>
>
Kate Johnson on wed 22 dec 04
>
> As for clay body...I have only seen them made of earthenware. Do you
> think a ^6 claybody would be too tight for the thermal changes produced
> during cooking?
FWIW, earthenware, particularly grogged earthenware, does seem better able
to stand the thermal shock of cooking. When I first started exploring
ancient forms of cook pots to be used over hot coals, 4 years ago or so, I
was using stoneware, and found it MUCH more likely to crack in proximity
with direct heat than the earthenware has been.
Historically, most 17th, 18th, and 19th century cookpots have been
earthenware...look at the paintings of Chardin, among others, and extant
peices in museum collections. Lots of gorgeous terra cotta. (I'd be willing
to bet earlier pots were too, just not my area of study, for the most
part.)
Most (all?) of the Native American cookware has been some form of
earthenware, too, including the micaceous clay we were discussing earlier.
I'll be using either grogged or ungrogged terra cotta when I try my
tagine.
Best--
Kate
Ivor and Olive Lewis on thu 23 dec 04
Dear Carolynn Palmer,
If you intend cooking any clay vessel on either a gas or electric
stove top I suggest you stand the ceramic utensil a water bath,
starting with the water dead cold. Or you could flood an electric
skillet with water and stand the cooking utensil either in or over the
water.
If you are cooking in the oven put the pots into a dead cold, not a
preheated oven.
I have made Chinese Steamer Pots ( See Ceramic Monthly Project Book
"Potter's Wheel Projects" pp 14-17, "A Yunnan Cooker" ).
This series of books seems very up to date, modern in fact, in terms
of the questions which are asked and the topics that come up for
discussion on Clayart
I am still working on a clay which will stand being placed over hot
charcoal. I like the thought of adding Mica rather than grog to the
mix.
Best regards,
Ivor Lewis.
Redhill,
S. Australia.
Kate Johnson on thu 23 dec 04
> If you intend cooking any clay vessel on either a gas or electric
> stove top I suggest you stand the ceramic utensil a water bath,
> starting with the water dead cold. Or you could flood an electric
> skillet with water and stand the cooking utensil either in or over the
> water.
> If you are cooking in the oven put the pots into a dead cold, not a
> preheated oven.
Thank you, Ivor, I did forget to mention yesterday--even when using
primitive forms of earthenware cookpots over coals, you need to pre-heat the
pot near the fire, not just plop it onto the coals.
It's also best in most cases, if that's how you intend to use your vessel,
to make legs on it, to hold it up away from direct contact a bit. Pipkins
are made like this, but so are ancient Chinese cooking vessels (I've
forgotten what they are called.) Obviously tagines are NOT made that way,
so I'm quite interested in how they were used.
It seems odd that something that has withstood the heat of the kiln may have
trouble surviving cooking temps, but it all has to do with temperature
extremes and uneven expansion and contraction, I believe.
>> I am still working on a clay which will stand being placed over hot
> charcoal. I like the thought of adding Mica rather than grog to the
> mix.
Me too. For many reasons, one of which is that little surviving pot from my
ceramics class the summer I was 8 years old is a micaceous clay. Ah
nostalgia.
Best--
Kate
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