Keeping It Old School: Cooking with Clay Pots

Walk into the kitchens of most avid home cooks nowadays, and you might find, not just one or two, but maybe even a rainbow assortment of brightly colored Dutch ovens. Yet long before enameled cast iron cookware came into fashion, ancient cultures, working with the materials and tools they had readily available, developed some of the earliest earthenware cooking vessels, which date back to 13,000 BC.

Clay cookware requires a bit more effort to maintain than your average Le Creuset, but there are many benefits to clay pot cooking. Unlike metal, clay is non-reactive and will not affect the flavor of your food. Slow-cooked dishes like braises and stews benefit from being cooked in clay because the vessels retain and diffuse heat much more evenly than metal surfaces do. Unglazed pots, which must first be soaked in water, create a controlled steam environment, reducing the need for any additional oils or fats.

To ensure the longevity of your cookware, you must always season your clay pot before you first cook with it. Different types of vessels require different methods of seasoning and cleaning, so be sure to check the manufacturer's instructions. A clay pot that has been well cared for can be passed down for generations and will continue to naturally season your food in a way that no other cookware can.

Lucky Angelenos can dine on clay pot dishes from all over the world or cook in pots of their own purchased from local shops. Heres a list of what and where.

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Ddukbaegi

If you've ever eaten at a restaurant in Koreatown, you've no doubt seen waitresses serving steaming kimchi chigae (kimchi stew), soondubu (soft tofu soup) or samgyetang (herbal chicken soup) in ddukbaegi. These personal-sized, glazed earthenware pots can be found for cheap at any Korean supermarket. The clay walls of the ddukbaegi remain hot enough from stove-to-table to actually cook the raw egg that you're supposed to crack over your chigae or soondubu.

Get your ddukbaegi at Buil Samgye Tang: 4204 West Third Street, Los Angeles, CA 90020

Photo by Tatsuhiko Miyagawa. Wikimedia Commons License

Donabe

Donabe have long been a kitchen staple in Japanese homes and are currently enjoying something of a culinary renaissance, thanks to Naoko Takei Moore and co-author/chef Kyle Connaughton's instructive Donabe: Classic and Modern Japanese Clay Pot Cooking. From stewing to steaming, simmering, smoking or even just cooking rice, the versatility and aesthetic beauty of the handcrafted Nagatani-en donabe have made them popular among some of LA's top chefs. For those curious to learn more about donabe cooking, you can sign up for one of Moore's workshops through her online store, toiro kitchen.

For a highend experience of donabe, visit Otium: 222 South Hope Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012

Shakla Dist

Although you'll be hard-pressed to find shakla distoch (plural for shakla dist) in the restaurants of Little Ethiopia, this traditional clay pot is used throughout most of Ethiopia and Eritrea, where access to electricity and gas is still unavailable. These handmade vessels are used over an open flame for cooking curries and stews such as the classic doro wat or for baking dabo (Amharic for leavened breads).

Visit Little Ethiopia restaurants and shops and ask for shakla distoch dishes on Fairfax Avenue between W. Olympic Boulevard and Whitworth Drive.

Tagine

The term tagine can refer to either the distinctive conical-shaped earthenware cooking vessels used in Morocco and Algeria (in Tunisia, the word refers to a frittata), or the actual dishes that are cooked and served in them. Traditionally, tagines were set into hot charcoal for slow-cooking to allow the flavors to fully infuse. As the steam rises within the tagine's conical lid, condensation gathers and trickles back down to the meats, vegetables, rice and/or couscous simmering in their own juices below.

Visit Cleo: 1717 Vine Street, Los Angeles, CA 90028

Photo by Tola Akindipe. Creative Commons License.

B u J i

Chinese b u j i or sh guo sand pots are made from a coarse mixture of sand and clay and then reinforced with a wire frame. The glazed interior makes an excellent surface for crisping burnt rice crust, which many fans of the Cantonese dish swear is the best part of this popular one-pot meal. Fragrant jasmine rice is topped with slices of lop cheung (Chinese sausage), chunks of meat (usually chicken or salted pork) and sometimes gai lan (Chinese broccoli) before it's covered and set over an open flame. The ingredients' natural oils and flavors seep out and season the rice, while preventing it from sticking to the pot's surface. These sand pots can also be used for Chinese braises, stews and simple congees.

Look for b u j i with dishes like sanbeiji in restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley, the heart of Chinese cuisine in Greater L.A.

Photo by Richard Lee. Creative Commons License

R mertopf

Inspired by ancient Etruscan and Roman methods of cooking with terra cotta vessels, Bay Keramic, a post-war West German art pottery company, debuted the original, unglazed R mertopf or Roman pot in 1967. Touting the health benefits of being able to steam, braise, roast or bake with no added oils and fats, the company-now branded as R mertopf-has since expanded its line to include everything from garlic roasters to souffl dishes and even turkey roasters.

One place to try R mertopf-baked bread is at the annual Los Angeles Bread Festival. Keep an eye out for this years festival.

Cazuelas

Many Spanish-speaking cultures have their own variations of the cazuela. Derived from the Arabic word qas-ah for bowl, cazuelas are similar in appearance to the tagine base, which is more than just coincidence, considering the heavy Moorish influences prevalent throughout Spanish cuisine. Cazuelas, however are typically used withou

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