SC - eggplant follow-up

[Philip & Susan Troy]

LrdRas wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 97-12-17 04:43:10 EST, you write:
> 
> << setting
>  >fire on top. >>
> 
> Could this be referring to  a covered casserole that is placed in the fire and
> the coals are piled over the top?
> 
> Ras

Could be. Alternately (and this is my own personal interpretation) you
could use the old fireplace-shovel, or equivalent, run across the top of
the dish, with the coals in that. One of the things that leads me to
question the Dutch-oven concept is simply the fact that I haven't seen
anything like a casserole with a flanged cover among the various
drawings, etc., of Islamic cooking utensils.

I've seen some modern-day (but still quite old) ovens and outdoor-fire
setups from both Persia and Mesopotamia (read Iran and Iraq), and I
haven't really seen anything like a Western fireplace. I have, however,
seen a utensil for making flatbreads in, IIRC, Persia. It looks rather
like a wok, and is generally used inverted over a small fire, with the
bread dough being stretched over the convex surface. I've also seen,
from geographically similar locales, huge box ovens, with inclined banks
of coals, usually with a small trapdoor in the side. It occurs to me a
dish made in such an oven could be "gratineed" by removing the baking
dish from the oven, placing a scoop of the coals in your woklike
griddle, and lowering the hot convex metal surface onto, or near, the
top of the casserole.

Adamantius
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