HISTORY OF TANDOOR

History of Tandoor takes us back by 5000 years to Indus valley and Harappan civilizations of ancient India.The modern Tandoor in India dates back to the 16th and 17th centuries, and the rule of the Mughals. Traces of tandoors were found from the excavation of these historical sites. Use of tandoor however is not limited to only the Indian subcontinent; people use tandoor in West and Central Asia as well.

Traces of tandoor have also been found in ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations. However, modern tandoor was brought to India by the Mughals. Portable tandoor was invented much later during the reigns of Jahangir, a Mughal ruler. It is said that portable tandoor was carried by a team of cooks whenever he travelled.

History of tandoor will be incomplete if we do not mention Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji – the founder of Sikh religion. He encouraged the use of tandoor. In order to remove caste barriers and promote equality amongst people, he urged them to build Sanjha Chulha (common oven) in their neighbourhood. During the reign of the Mughal ruler Jahangir, Tandoor ovens became hugely popular, and were adopted by many of the peoples living in the north of today’s India and Pakistan. This area was also the birthplace of the Sikh religion, and the Tandoor holds a special place within their culture.

To this day, communal Tandoors are still used across the Punjab region and are a meeting place for people of all walks of life. However, archaeologists have found traces of an even older oven in the Indus valley, closely resembling the Sikh’s favourite stove. This concept of community oven not only helped in removing caste and class barriers, but also became a meeting point of women who got an opportunity to chat and gossip around the sanjha chulha.

A tandoor is also known as tannour, is predominantly a cylindrical clay or metal oven used in cooking and baking. The tandoor is used for cooking in Southern, Central, and Western Asia, as well as in the South Caucasus. The heat for a tandoor was traditionally generated by a charcoal or wood fire, burning within the tandoor itself, thus exposing the food to live fire, radiant heat cooking, and hot-air, convection cooking, and smoking in the fat and food juices

That drip on to the charcoal. The tandoor design is something of a transitional form between a makeshift earth oven and the horizontal-plane masonry oven. Tandoors are typically used in restaurants whilst smaller tandoors and electric tandoors are making their way into homes. Whenever a tandoor is used at first time, the temperature must be gradually increased to condition the interior of the oven. This step is crucial in ensuring the longevity of the tandoor. Conditioning can be done by starting a very small fire and slowly adding fuel to gradually increase the amount of heat inside the tandoor. Hairline cracks might form during conditioning; this is normal and will not interfere with the performance of the tandoor oven. When the oven cools off, the hairline cracks will barely be noticeable. They are essential in allowing the clay body of the tandoor to breathe and the slower the temperature inside the tandoor is increased during its first use, the fewer hairline cracks will develop. The Asian subcontinent and even the Middle East, Tandoors are some of oldest cooking vessels still used in the modern era, and possess a near-holy status in Punjabi cuisine.

FIRE IN THE HOLE

The modern Tandoor is traditionally made of clay, and has a tall bell-shaped design with a hole at the top to allow for air to fuel the fire. Either buried in the earth or standing above the ground, this fire is formed at the bottom of the pot with coal or wood, and once lit can continue to burn unaided for many hours. This makes Tandoors ideal for areas where fuel is expensive or scarce.

Reaching temperatures as high as 480 °C (900 °F), these ovens are all about hard, fast cooking – but that being said, they are remarkably versatile in spite of their simple design. Radiant heat coming from the pit is similar to baking, direct heat from the coals is akin to grilling, the hot clay walls can be used as a griddle, and finally the dripping oil and fat falling to the coals works essentially like a smoker. 

This versatility has spawned a whole host of dishes, and makes the Tandoor a vital part of the modern Indian kitchen.

TIKKA’D PINK

The blazing heat of the Tandoor gives it’s dishes a unique smoky flavour, and with such high temperatures, the food needs to be prepared in a way that protects them from the heat.

Arguably the most well known dish to come out of this fiery pit is Tikka. Pieces of meat or paneer are marinated in yoghurt and spices, then cooked on long skewers. With their bright red colour and charred exterior, Tikka dishes are renowned for being extremely succulent, as the short cooking time seals in the juices.

NAAN

This leavened flatbread is made by sticking dough directly onto the steep curved walls of the oven. The blistering surface of the clay is so hot that the bread adheres to the surface, and after 2 minutes, is ready to be served.

Similar to Naan, Kulcha is another bread that is cooked on the griddle-like walls of a Tandoor. Commonly filled with paneer, potato or vegetables, stuffed Kulcha is a favourite snack or side dish in the Punjabi region. It may seem strange that some of the world’s favourite Indian dishes are cooked in an oven that has barely changed in 500 years, but when it comes to Tandoori food – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.