The cookware is well known throughout Colombia and is used in many top city restaurants for serving traditional dishes. Its origins can be traced back at least 700 years to vases and pitchers found in pre-Colombian archaeological sites. It is still made in the traditional manner, mostly by the women in a few small villages, each piece being moulded into shape by hand rather than spun on a wheel.
The body of each piece is made from a coarse clay which is dark grey in colour. A finer terracotta clay, the colour of which derives from the presence of iron in the form of Ferric Oxide, or rust, is then applied thinly over the entire surface as a glaze. After drying, this is burnished with very smooth pebbles of semi-precious stones such as Tiger's Eye. It is the skill and the time spent in polishing which distinguishes the finer from the more rustic produce.
After baking in the sun, the cookware is placed inside earthenware urns and fired in large earth kilns. A coarse organic dust of dried herbs and grasses is thrown into the urns immediately after firing. This burns rapidly and reduces the Ferric Oxide in the glaze to Ferrosoferric Oxide, which is black.
Sometimes, depending on how and when the dust is added, patches on the surface may retain their original terracotta colour. The process by which the glaze turns black is also reversible if the cookware is exposed to intense heat in the presence of oxygen. This explains the reddish brown patches which may appear on the base of a vessel after heating on the hob for a long time.
TAGINE 24 X 24 X 21 CMS 2 LITRES 4-6 PEOPLE
SINGLE FIRED - HAND APPLIED GLAZE
LOW CARBON PRODUCT
FAIR TRADE
USABLE ALL COOKER TYPES AGAS - BBQS . DISHWASHER - MICROWAVE