A tandoor is a cylindrical clay oven used in Transcaucasus, the Balkans, the Middle East, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, in which food is cooked over a hot charcoal fire. Temperatures in a tandoor can approach 480°C (900°F), and it is common for tandoor ovens to remain lit for long periods of time to maintain the high cooking temperature. The tandoor design is something of a transitional form between a makeshift earth oven and the horizontal-plan masonry oven, and is used almost exclusively for live-fire, radiant heat cooking.
The tandoor is also known by another name of ‘Bhatti’ in India. The Bhatti tribe of the Thar Desert of Northwestern India and Eastern Pakistan developed the Bhatti in their desert abode, and thus it gained the name of Bhatti. It is thought to have travelled to Central Asia and the Middle East along with the Roma, who originated amongst the Thar Desert tribes.
The tandoor is currently a very important fixture in many Indian restaurants around the world. Some modern day tandoors use electricity or gas instead of charcoal.
Etymology
The oldest example of a tandoor was found in the Harappa and Mohenjo Daro settlements of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization. In Sanskrit, the tandoor was referred to as kandu. The word tandoor comes from the Urdu words tandūr and tannūr; these are derived from very similar terms, viz. Persian tanūr, Arabic tandur, Turkish Tandır and Azeri word təndir (which all have the same meaning as explained in the article). According to Dehkhoda Persian Dictionary the word has originated from Akkadian tinûru, Avestan tanura and Pahlavi tanur and as such, the term might be neither of Semitic nor Iranian origin and dates back to periods before migration of Aryan and Semitic people to Iranian plateau and Mesopotamia when they had been populated by their original native inhabitants.
Recipes
- Tandoori Cuisine
- Chicken Tikka
See also
- Punjabi cuisine
- Build your own courtyard Tandoor
- Tandoori Recipes
External links
Sources
Parts were retrieved from wikipedia
