Donabe/Clay Pot Cookery

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rickbern

rickbern

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I'm fascinated lately with the idea of clay pot cooking. I have a tagine with a glazed interior, I'm thinking of getting a donabe to supplement it and using it as an all purpose pot for (mostly) Mediterranean style stews and braises. Also want to use it as a bean pot.

I have a gas stove, I'm thinking this is going to be for smaller, socially distanced cooking over the winter.

Thusly:

https://mtckitchen.com/flower-motif-donabe-earthenware-pot-74-fl-oz-8-25-dia/
I'm also thinking of getting one of these unglazed black clay south american pots instead, they look pretty cool as well

https://www.mytoque.com/collections/casseroles-roasters/products/chamba-casserole
Anybody have any experience with this?
 
I have a kamado-san donabe rice cooker and several others from Naoko Moore's ToiroKitchen.com shop. She has quite a few recipes on the toiro website, her personal blog and a donabe cookbook as well.

The Iga-yaki donabe are hand-made, artisanal items and their prices reflect that. I don't think the results with them are significantly better but they are very nicely made.

Nabes are go-to weeknight suppers in the winter: a single pot, usually take less than an hour start to finish, delicious and healthy. Shabu-shabu is also fun to do at the table with a portable butane burner.
 
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I also have a few Iga Mono donabes purchased from Toiro. They're on the pricier side, but they look and feel nicer than almost anything else I've seen. I use my kamado-san all the time to make rice, but seldom use my others (a tagine and a smoker) but I keep meaning to remedy that deficiency. I also keep meaning to try to make nabe in kamado-san, but the 3-cup version isn't ideal so I haven't given it a shot yet. Naoko Moore put out a donabe cookbook with chef Kyle Connaughton that is a useful guidebook/advertisement for the more popular donabes Toiro sells.

There's a Facebook group called Cooking With Clay that you might want to check out.
 
Good looking pottery, but I'm not sure if any of her work is intended to be used over a direct flame or in an oven.
 
She advertises as making both functional and decorative. I have little to no experience cooking with stoneware but don't see how these would function any differently than ones made by someone else.

259486_218722224834211_5723783_o.jpg
 
Slim278 said:
She advertises as making both functional and decorative. I have little to no experience cooking with stoneware but don't see how these would function any differently than ones made by someone else.

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Slim, I’m hoping to get something with unglazed clay. Those pieces are beautiful, but I doubt they’re intended to be used over an open flame.

edit, btbyrd took the words out of my mouth!
 
I've been using a Römertopf for decades. Seriously useful for any kind of ragout, and you can put a whole chicken into the thing and have it come out wonderfully succulent and moist. It basically does what a steam oven can do, at a tiny fraction of the cost.
 
Michi said:
I've been using a Römertopf for decades. Seriously useful for any kind of ragout, and you can put a whole chicken into the thing and have it come out wonderfully succulent and moist. It basically does what a steam oven can do, at a tiny fraction of the cost.
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Yeah, that’s definitely on the list. I think that Roman pot is really unique, I’m super curious about it. I just wish I had a garage!
 
rickbern said:
I don’t quite understand why some of those donabes have a metal grid in them. Is that some dry roasting deal?
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The Toiro smoker has metal grids. The steamer has a clay insert with holes.
 
Michi said:
I've been using a Römertopf for decades. Seriously useful for any kind of ragout, and you can put a whole chicken into the thing and have it come out wonderfully succulent and moist. It basically does what a steam oven can do, at a tiny fraction of the cost.
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Have a Romertopf that I haven't used in years... and a guinea fowl in the freezer and some salt-preserved meyer lemons 🤔
 
Got a few to get me started, the star of the show right now is a La Chamba 4 quart stew pot with 3lbs of beef Inside, simmering up a daube. I also got a ten buck spanish cazuela that I used last night to braise some baby artichokes. I’m pretty stoked with this whole deal.

I thought it only fitting that I bought a clay pot imported from Columbia on Columbus Day.

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I bought one of the La Chamba pans to try out. I washed it with soap and water, heated up some butter in the pan and wiped out before cooking some onions. I put the onions on some toast and they taste like dirt. Am I doing something wrong or do these take a long time to break in?
 
Did you follow the instructions to season it? I started it in a cold oven and started timing it after it hit 400


SEASONING CHAMBA
Before you use your clay Chamba cookware for the first time, the piece should be filled three-quarters full with water and placed uncovered in an oven for 30 minutes at 400ºF. This usually seals the cookware, although a complete seal is sometimes achieved only after it has been used several times for cooking. Boiling milk in the vessel may help if it is still found to be too porous, but this is rarely necessary. All of the cookware and tableware can be used over any direct source of heat, including an open fire. Over time you will notice changes in color of the pot from exposure to the heat source.

CLEANING CHAMBA
After it has been seasoned, Chamba cookware cleans easily. A quick soak and wipe down with a sponge or soft cloth is all you need to clean it. Cleaning in the dishwasher or use of abrasive cleaners is not recommended, nor should you soak your Chamba for long periods of time.
 
you did all that cooking on the stovetop?

i have a cheap one from Taiwan. i always put it in the oven.
 
rickbern said:
Got a few to get me started, the star of the show right now is a La Chamba 4 quart stew pot with 3lbs of beef Inside, simmering up a daube. I also got a ten buck spanish cazuela that I used last night to braise some baby artichokes. I’m pretty stoked with this whole deal.

I thought it only fitting that I bought a clay pot imported from Columbia on Columbus Day.

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okay..i just looked at the website. the 4-quart list the dimension as 11x11x4. yours appears way taller than 4". what am i missing here.

the reviews cracked me up. the people feel that moonbeams come shooting out the vessel when you crack it open. hhaha..

neat vessel tho.
 
boomchakabowwow said:
you did all that cooking on the stovetop?

i have a cheap one from Taiwan. i always put it in the oven.
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Boom,

Moonbeams? Give those people a toyama, they'll think they have a light sabre. Hell, give them a tojiro, they'd write poetry to that too.

Yeah, I've used the laChamba stovetop for 4 hours on both beef daube and bolognese sauce. Two hours on beans. All turned out great, the beans and the bolognese were exceptional (but I switched bolognese recipes this time). I have two spanish cazuelas and a korean small casserole that I also use on top of the stove. Made stovetop rice and grains in the korean pot and braised baby artichokes, braised fava beans, etc in the cazuelas.

The trick is to keep everything at the same temperature. If I add water to a hot pot, I warm it up first before putting it in. I start the heat slowly and build it up gradually.

Here's the (sort of current) pict of them all

https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/show-your-newest-gear.41801/post-752990
I bought mine locally, but this is the one I got. I'm thinking of getting a lower, 2.5 qt version too.

https://ancientcookware.com/la-chamba-collection/black-clay-la-chamba-dutch-oven-detail
 
This thread sucks. Youre making me want to dip into my fishing gear budget to buy a black pot!
 
boomchakabowwow said:
This thread sucks. Youre making me want to dip into my fishing gear budget to buy a black pot!
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Boom, a thousand apologies. It never occurred to me that cool new cooking stuff would be like waving a red flag in front of a bull around here.

But, if it makes you feel any better, here's a fish dish prepared in a clay pot. I actually posted this recipe before I got into all this and I hadn't seen this video.

https://www.marthastewart.com/319279/moroccan-fish-tagine-with-tomatoes-olive
ps-bought a new pot today at the Italian market in South Brooklyn. Deep 24 cm, no cover, brand is Piral, high quality Italian Terra Cotta. Ten bucks. I never see them online so cheap, look around some funny groceries, you can have your fish and eat it too.
 
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