Urlis, Chattis & Cast Iron: Why Traditional Cookware Deserves a Spot in Your Kitchen
India has a long and diverse heritage of traditional cookware. Amrita Amesur makes a case for their place in the modern kitchen, with notes on how to use them, where to buy them, and how to care for them. Put away that non-stick pan!
A study of the history of traditional food, even the food in our own homes, is inextricably linked with the study of ancient metals and other materials in which food was cooked, for optimal nutrition and flavour. The first glass of water in the morning was always from a copper lota filled the night before. Any subzi or meat with ras was inevitably cooked in a brass deghchi with ghee, and sukka subzi in an iron kadai with cold pressed local oils. Phulkas, rotlis and dosas came off a seething hot iron tawa, with a brush of ghee; delicate Kerala fish stews were always made in a clay meen chatti. Daughters-in-law wouldn’t dare grind masalas or chutneys in anything other than an imam dusta.
Somewhere along the way, as recent as our parents’ generation, there was a transition from inherited pots and pans, to the shining advent of stainless steel and aluminium — which no longer needed to be shined, scrubbed, seasoned or lined; it gleamed without the fuss, expense or maintenance of its predecessors. Later still, the non-stick Teflon coating took things to a whole new level; people believed that their lives, until the arrival of the non-stick pan, had been deeply unhealthy. The country was intrinsically made to question all its food habits and traditions, and everything was thereafter a mathematical equation of fat, protein, carbohydrates and fibre. The only conversation about food in the 1990’s and the early 2000s was diet food, and an indirect shaming of all traditional foods that used oil, ghee and sugar at their base.
But holes in this new age system started to show, even in my own body. I began to dig into the science behind cookware traditions, and found a wealth of knowledge on the use of ancient metals and stone. At home, I re-discovered a golden brass degchi with a fine tin lining, ideal for slow-cooked gravies and pulaos; came across the impressive, if intimidating, soapstone kalchatti to make the perfect tomato rasam; fell back in sync with our buried mortar and pestle; pulled out all our copper lotas from the pooja ki saamaghri to drink water from, every morning; and hunted down the perfect iron kadai to roast subzis and halwas.
I won’t lie to you: in comparison with the non-sticks and aluminiums, they were high maintenance, had varied cleaning methods, and need to be cured before use. Stone, clay and iron need to be strengthened with gradual and intense heat, with slow oil massages. Copper and brass, highly reactive with acidic elements, need to be lined with tin — an ancient purifying metal in its own right.
Tinning, for hundreds of years, was done by way of an age-old process known as kalai, in India. Special skilled artisans, kalaiwaalas, would roam from town to town until as recently as 15 years ago, collecting pots and pans from families, to replenish the worn out kalai. To a spectator, it can appear quite mystical — a makeshift bhatti oven is created to melt down the tin to molten liquid, then poured into the pots to reveal a freshly gleaming coat on golden brass pots. This layer of tin is naturally non-stick, it protects the food, but does nothing to impair the transmission of the properties of brass and copper, into the food. Since bronze contained tin as part of its alloy, it needed no tinning, in the ancient kitchens of Kerala. The beauty of these ancient metals only gleamed through when they were scrubbed regularly with tamarind and coarse salt, acting as abrasive cleansers.
The more I researched, the more overwhelming the information I found. I set out to decode it all one by one, in natural progression, as time. From the Stone Age, to the Iron Age and then the Copper Age which carried with it the alloys of Bronze, Kansa and Brass. What they all have in common is that they are ancient, naturally occurring elements, uniquely laden with natural properties and bio-minerals. Fortunately for us, India’s artisans have mastered the art of taming and harnessing these properties to our advantage.
STONE AGE
Soapstone Kal-chattis being seasoned with castor oil and turmeric
Picture Credits: Essential Traditions by Kayal
The kal-chatti, or stone-pot, is a wonderfully dense and multi-dimensional wonder pot, as old as time. It has found a sanctified spot over hundreds of years in the kitchens of south India. Grannies still hand over their beloved kal-chattis to a deserving grandchild, as heirlooms within the family. These hand-chiseled pots were traditionally used on open wood fire to cook rasam, sambar, aviyal and theeyal. As stone-age as they may appear, the kal-chatti is equally efficient on the modern gas stove. Once heated through, it is capable of retaining phenomenally high temperatures for several hours, even after it is removed from the heat, ensuring that the food stays warm for hours. Since the slow cooking process continues after the flame is turned off, it compensates for the initial time taken to heat up, making it very energy efficient indeed. It also nullifies nutrition loss from the constant reheating of food, so very frowned upon by Ayurveda. Food can also be left in the kal-chatti for the day, much like a casserole, without refrigeration.
Soapstone deposits in India are rare, limited to only two spots — Bellur-Halibeed in Karnataka, and mines near Salem in Tamil Nadu. Only stone from 150 ft below the earth’s surface have the correct density and mineral properties to be mined and chiseled into a kal-chatti for cooking. Anything from higher layers crack and break apart under the heat of the stove. Soapstone also has the unique ability to resist reactions with high alkaline or acidic foods – what that means, is that tomatoes cooked in such a pot will taste very intensely like tomato, and not some diluted version of itself!. It will also enrich your dal and sambars with with calcium and magnesium. As per research, it also retains close to 98% of the inherent nutrition of ingredients, protecting taste and natural aromas. It is also an absolute joy to cook in – a classic one pot wonder. While this pot may be native to south India, its possibilities are endless — you can really make anything from dal tadka and shorbhas to rajma and curries, besides the aromatic sambars and rasams.
An Aromatic Tomato Rasam Slow Brewing in the Soapstone kal-chatti
Picture credit: Amrita Amesur
Rumour has it that soapstone chattis, curd pots (to make the creamiest yogurt), appam, paniyaram and idli tawas, must be hunted down in and around the ancient temple markets of Chennai, Trichy and Madurai where artisans camp out seasonally, during local festivals, to sell their hand-chiselled wares. If you’re not up to the chase but must get your hands on these immediately, Essential Traditions by Kayal and Zishta liaise directly with artisans in rural Tamil Nadu to bring to you pre-seasoned soapstone goods along with excellent instructions for care and usage.
The Tanghkhul Naga community in the verdant hills of Longpi in Ukhrul, Manipur, to this day combine serpentinite and weathered rocks by hand, into beautiful black pots, pans and cups. No potter’s wheel, no fancy kilns; just talented hands and a makeshift oven out in the open, with local wood and leaves. These indigenous rock contain naturally occurring iron which enrich food with their minerals. They have beautiful round-bottomed pots, and even a Dutch-oven style pot with a flat bottom, wonderful for the long, slow cooking of stews, biryanis and curries. They also have a collection of uniquely designed serve-ware. You can find them online at Giskaa, Zishta, and Amazon.
MORTAR & PESTLE
A kathiawari style wooden Ukhdi made in Bhavnagar, Gujarat paired with a heavy cast brass Dasta to pound wet masalas.
Picture credit: Amrita Amesur
The mortar and pestle are so ubiquitous, with many faces as there are cultures in our country. Each region has a version that has been handcrafted to grind everyday herbs, spices, medicines, masalas and chutneys, even dosa batter. It is how the famed Ligurian basil pesto sauce attained its name, because it was always pounded by hand with a mortar and pestle.
Known by a multitude of names, the mortar and pestle takes form in the round-bottomed marble imam dasta; the cylindrical wooden Bhavnagari ukhdi, and heavy cast brass dasta to pound wet masalas; the larger, flat stone sil-batta to fine-grind spices; khal-dasta for all manner of pounding; a flat stone kalvam to crush herbs medicines used by ayurvedic vaidyans; and smaller, flat-bottomed cylindrical iron mortar and pestles to pound small valuable spices. You never have to fine-chop ginger, garlic and chilies again, or even bother with an expensive European style pepper mill — just a good pounding will release beautiful, flavour-rich oils (and some stress from your long day)! No chutney from a food processor tastes quite like herbs coarsely hand-pounded with a dasta. Moreover, stone as an element is non-reactive with the food, maintaining virgin flavours and nutrition.
Essential Traditions by Kayal has a lovely soapstone mortar and pestle and Tredy Foods has a varied collection of traditional stone sil-battas, khal dastas and kalvam to choose from, so take your pick!
IRON AGE
Blistering chillies in an iron pan for Mirchi ka Saalan
Picture credit: Amrita Amesur
Needless to say, the use of iron – lokhand – dates back several centuries. Particularly in India, and several other countries in Asia, there has been a long tradition of cooking with iron on open flame of wood or cow-dung cakes. Think of the iron kadai for a good sukka subzi; the griddle tawa so very essential for our rotis, phulkas and dosas; a Chinese wok for a quick stir-fry; a frying pan for frying, searing and browning; the cast iron Dutch oven with thick walls and a tight lid to slow-cook casseroles, and most popular nowadays – the cast iron skillet, to make all manner of European roasts and of course, shakshuka!
But the transition to non-stick, aluminium anodized pots, stainless steel cookers and pans, was so swift that nobody paused to consider why we used iron for generations. For starters, iron has the incredible ability to retain heat over long periods; it takes a couple of minutes to heat all the way through, but once it’s there, it will hold for a long time. This heat is constant, powerful and flawlessly uniform throughout every inch of an iron pot. What does that mean for us?
The reason stainless-steel pots need so much oil is because they are inferior conductors of heat – heating up in parts and patches, leaving sections sticky and burnt, forcing you to pour in more oil. This then led us straight into the arms of the non-stick, no-oil-needed, Teflon cookware. This very virtue is what always set iron apart from the rest. Iron is an excellent retainer of heat — a uniform, sustained, seething heat, ideal for the steady and lengthy slow roast, and even quick high-heat stir fries. Since there are no patches of heat, but a full enveloping, almost oven-like warmth in an iron pot or kadai, it automatically becomes non-stick. This alone makes a strong case to go back to the iron way of life.
Essential Traditions by Kayal, Tredy Foods and Rock Tawa have a wonderful selection of cast iron kadais, roti tawas, dosa kallus, iron skillets, paniyaram kals and appam pans. Zishta in particular has artisanal handcrafted iron goods made with railway-grade iron, that are heavily tested for impurities, go through multiple quality checks, certifications, and which patronize clusters of craftsmen in Tenkasi, Tamil Nadu. Essential Traditions by Kayal houses a community of artisans at their foundry in Madurai, manually carrying out all the processes on their iron utensils, beside the blasting heat of the furnace. They are then brought over to Chennai where they are further individually treated with cold-pressed sesame oil.
THE COPPER, BRASS & BRONZE AGE
Most noble of ancient metals, just short of gold and silver in the Vedic ladder, is natural burnished orange-red copper. It is copper that can balance all three doshas, the vata, pitta and kapha, which together control the metabolism of the human body. It is the best conductor of heat on the earth (after silver), which simply means heating one end of a piece of copper wire will lead the other end to reaching the same temperature in no time at all. Some even call it the sports car of kitchenware! it is lightning fast, beautiful and expensive. Traditional French kitchens continue to swear by their tin-lined copper saucepans in every imaginable size, hung beautifully around the hearth, to prepare delicate, buttery sauces and seafood. But in the history of Indian cooking, copper was always considered too reactive to sour elements to be used for cooking. Instead a slew of cleverly crafted alloys were cast, to harness the abilities of copper in the Indian style of cooking.
These ancient alloys of brass, bronze and bell metal inherited a large part of copper’s properties. Being hypersensitive to heat, it was the ideal choice to cook delicate foods that easily burn or overcook. Brass and copper deghs, bronze urlis from Kerala, have always found a place in kitchens, to store water, slow cook curries, kheer, payasam, aromatic pulaos, and biryanis. The tin lining prevents any adverse reactions with acidic ingredients, and rewards the cook (and diner) with intensely flavourful meals and long-term immunity. Even thalis, katoris and glasses made of brass, or the now rare, pink-hued kansa bell metal, were found in homes as everyday serveware, until about 40 years ago. They were known for their healing, therapeutic and even medicinal properties. You may remember some of these exquisite brass plates (made by Baarique) from dining at The Bombay Canteen.
All of these ancient metals carry with them a singular, exceptional ability (as with unglazed terracotta clay) — to neutralize the acidic nature of food and water, which tend to build up toxins in the human body. And this alkalinity is exactly what is recommended by Ayurveda! The current trend of copper water bottles has its roots in the old copper lotas and clay matkas of our ancient culinary tradition. in times of disease and uncertain access to clean drinking water, copper and terracotta calmed, purified and fortified acidic water with alkaline, immunity-building properties. They held families in good stead through seasonal changes, indigestion, sore throats, hot and cold months alike.
At Café Madras, in the distinctly south Indian quarter of Matunga in Bombay, you may have noticed a massive south Indian-style brass coffee filter on the upper wall — an ode to ancestors who knew full well the ill effects of drinking coffee first thing in the morning. So coffee filters were painstakingly hammered out of brass, to neutralise these dangers, tipping its properties into alkaline.
To this day, you can still find machine-made brass coffee filters, deghs, copper lotas, bottles and jugs, marketed over the internet and in superstores, largely manufactured in Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh. But hand-hammered pieces have all but disappeared, now valued as antiques. The coffee filters and dabaras were traditionally made in a village near Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu. But high labour costs mean that even these are rare. Zishta has identified a tambat ali cluster of Maharashtra whose history of craftsmanship dates back to that of Shivaji Maharaj, beating copper and brass to fashion armours and plates for battle. And these tambats were coaxed to create stunning, distinctly hand-beaten brass coffee filters with dabara sets, copper lotas, jugs and glasses for Zishta. Studio Coppre also has a collection of handcrafted metalware to brighten your table. No better way to start your morning routine than with a glass of copper-enriched water, followed by aromatic, brass-filter coffee!
I recommend a trip to antique markets, to scour for old-school brass pots, urlis, plates and katoris. The Sunday flea market on the Sabarmati riverfront in Ahmedabad, and the famed Chor Bazaar in Bombay are both wonderful. The craftsmen in the small town of Mannar in Kerala, are still casting a unique alloy of bronze, considered to be the most shudh dhatu (purest metal), between clay moulds, producing beautiful bronze urlis by hand. These bronze urlis were a beautiful, luxurious acquisition even a 100 years ago, as they continue to be today.
It might seem challenging to find, but any good market with a cluster of kitchenware shops will have, buried in overhead lofts, a whole collection of brass and copper-ware. Because of their lost popularity, they are not fast moving, and relegated to dusty corners. Whilst there is a dearth of handcrafted cookware made with ancient metals in India, an increase in usage, and patronage of artisanal communities, can go long way in bringing these glorious traditions back.
Urad ki Kali Dal slow cooking to a luscious creamy flow in a golden brass deghchi bearing a silver tin lining
Picture credit: Amrita Amesur
TERRACOTTA ERA
In Kerala, clay was the poor man’s bronze. The farming community and the economically underprivileged who could never afford to buy a bronze urli, could leverage the same benefits from clay. The porous nature of terracotta allowed heat to circulate evenly, hold nutrition and aroma, and even held alkaline abilities similar to copper and its alloys. It was the perfect substitute for these ancient metals. The delicate payasam and fish curry could now even be cooked in a clay chatti, containing bio-minerals of the river delta clay.
These properties of terracotta resonate through India in the form of the humble matka. It was only during long-haul trips to my grandmother’s house in small-town Gujarat, in the peak of summer, that I encountered the virtues of the clay matka first-hand. Even in the scalding heat, somehow, the matka was doing a better job cooling the copious amounts of water we needed to get through the day, than the fridge. It wasn’t that blunt, tooth-aching cold of the fridge; it was almost like spring-water, calming you from the inside out, against the dry, arid heat. These matkas, along with clay cooking pots and meen chattis, are made from naturally occurring terracotta, literally baked earth in Italian, which becomes porous when fired. Through microscopic holes in the matka, water seeps out, evaporates and causes a cooling effect. It is poetically believed to calm running water, which in turn instills a calm, healing effect on the body that drinks it. Overall, it improves metabolism, digestion and hormonal balance. And just like copper, clay is alkaline in nature and neutralises the acidic nature of water stored in it, and food cooked in it.
When first bought, the matkas need to be dunked in a bucket of water for a day or so, to clean. Then, the test of a genuine matka, is that it should leak, as strange as that sounds — but we’re testing its porosity, which is what will cool your water. Clay matkas and pots need a delicate hand to maintain; they need frequent cleaning and must be replaced after a year or so.
The next time you see a house with unglazed clay pots lined up on display along the highway, make a pitstop and load up. Bring matkas to keep at home or at the office, for your dose of cool, still water. For a modern feel, Ellementry and Zishta have lovely terracotta jugs, water bottles and glasses. Look up the clay cooking pots from Zishta, made from clay from the Cauvery delta region. What you want is to find a trusted vendor or artisan, to ensure that the clay hasn’t been glazed or chemically treated in any way.
In life, as with everything, balance is key. Ayurveda, which translates to the Science of Life, believes all objects in the universe, including the human body, are composed of five basic elements – earth, water, fire, air and vacuum. A harmonious balance of these elements is imperative for good health and well being, which depend directly on the nutrition provided through food. When we eat from natural elements mined from the earth, we strike this fine balance better; we respect indigenous art and craft, and a tradition that goes back centuries, using beautiful cookware that can be recycled or passed down as heirlooms
It falls on us now, to responsibly patronise these artisans falling into obscurity, the ones who create, shape, beat and coax with their hands, India’s traditional cookware. To bring them back into our kitchens, and preserve the beauty of these microcosms of cultures.
Amrita Amesur is a corporate lawyer by profession and is deeply passionate about food. You can follow her adventures on Instagram.
ALSO ON THE GOYA JOURNAL
