Clay pot cooking
[5] Clay remained popular for those dishes that depended on the unique qualities of clay cooking; Food & Wine called out such dishes as biryani, cassoulet, daube, tagine, jollof rice, kedjenou, cazuela, and baked beans.
[5] Clay cookers allow food to be cooked with minimal additional liquids or fats.
[5] The clay from Lake Biwa contains tiny fossils which incinerate and produce small pockets of air, which also hold heat.
The food inside the pot loses little to no moisture because it is surrounded by steam, creating a tender, flavorful dish.
[7] In the Balkans multiple cuisines use a clay pot, often called a güveç, to cook ghivetch and other related dishes.
[9]: 241 In the southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana in India, the traditional pot used for cooking is called chatti.
[citation needed] In northern states, including Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, the cooking pots are called handi.
[citation needed] People in Sri Lanka use clay pots to make many dishes including pahi fish curry, called abul thiyal; accharu, a chutney; as well as some meats, rice, and several types of freshwater fish called Lula, Hunga, Magura and Kawaiya.
[10] After soaking the pots are filled with food and placed in a cold oven or started over a very low burner.
[1] The sandy pot evolved from the fu, which was used in the Han dynasty to cook a dish called weng.
[4] A culture surrounding donabe developed called nabe o kakomu, which means 'surrounding the pot' or a communal meal.
[4]: 6 According to Naoko Takei Moore, donabe culture "teaches the concept of ichigo-ichie, or "every moment is a once-in-a-lifetime treasure".
Some traditional dishes are still cooked in clay pots as the same flavor cannot be achieved with metal cookware.
[11] The tall lid acts to condense rising steam and allow the moisture to roll back down into the dish.
[3] Native American civilizations traditionally cooked in clay pots, although they fell out of favor after European settlers' introduction of metal cookware.
[citation needed] In the modern United States some cooks choose to use clay pots for health or environmental reasons.
[citation needed] In New England and other regions, baked beans were traditionally cooked with salt pork in a beanpot in a brick oven for six to eight hours.
[14] In the absence of a brick oven, the beans were cooked in a beanpot nestled in a bed of embers placed near the outer edges of a hearth, about a foot away from the fire.
"Bean hole" cooking may have originated with the native Penobscot people and later practiced in logging camps.
A fire would be made in a stone-lined pit and allowed to burn down to hot coals, and then a pot with seasoned beans would be placed in the ashes, covered over with dirt, and left to cook overnight or longer.
