[Sca-cooks] Greek terracotta foufou stove
Susan Fox
selene at earthlink.net
Tue Mar 3 09:50:26 PST 2009
I think Mercy is correct. What Sharon describes is a lot like that
chafing dish that Master Hroar [Mister Huette - lol] makes, and he
should have documentation on that. Piccie here:
http://www.griffindyeworks.com/store/index.php?main_page=popup_image&pID=282
The item that Sharon described has taller sides, is all. Sharon, do
you have a picture?
Also worth comparing: the Japanese "kamado" cooker, rendered modernly
as the Green Egg and other brands. http://www.biggreenegg.com/index.html
Selene, crazed grill grrl
Mercy Neumark wrote:
> I've seen other types of pots in period and from what I can tell (my head hurts, so excuse me if I mis-inturpreted it) it sounds like a chaffing dish to me. I have some pictures someplace of them (unfortunately not scanned but I MIGHT be able to do that in a few days). The examples I have are English, around 13-14th or so century. Sort of Y shaped. Fuel efficient... eh, I guess as fuel efficient as cooking anything. Think of it as a fondue pot of the period really. And smoke would be coming out like crazy, depending on what you would use. So, it's not a comfortable way of cooking by any stretch of the imagination.
>
> There is a block print of a chaffing dish (I believe) being used with a small pipkin on it. I need to find the pictures. I don't know if Mistress Huette has the scans still on her computer or not. I know it is on my pipkin documentation, which was LONG crashed. If I find it, I will put it up on my food blog.
>
> But basically you could cook anything realititive to the size of your chaffing dish and pipkin. I've made both and I would think the pipkins were like a pint or so? Maybe I'm exaggerating a TEENY tiny bit? Like a small suace pan since it wasn't used for major cooking as far as I could tell (the chaffing dish). Just mostly like it's used for now... portable cooking in small areas.
>
> I could be DEAD wrong, but that's what I gathered with my research as I was doing the pottery end.
>
> The base is narrow, the "mouth" is wider.
>
> I'm stopping now, because I could have misunderstood this entire question and I hate it when I boo-boo. I don't want to take up anyone's time. Hopefully I understood what the vessel was and got it.
>
> --Baroness Asakura no Mashi (Mercy the Potter of Caid)
> Goes back to lurking
> ::waves at all my friends and crosses fingers that I didn't just make a doofus of myself::
>
>
>
>> In Hoffman's book, The Olive and the Caper, she describes a 2000+ year old
>> stove style that is still in use in the present in Greece.
>>
>>
>>
>> Description:
>>
>> Made of red clay
>>
>> ~15 inches tall
>>
>> Wine cup shape on thick hollow stem
>>
>> Incisions in at the bottom of the cup leading to the stem
>>
>> At the bottom of the stem is a triangular cutout
>>
>> Two small curlicued handles on opposite sides of the cup's broad lip
>>
>> Presently only made and sold on the island of Sifnos
>>
>>
>>
>> To use:
>>
>> Put small heap of charcoal in the cup, perhaps with a bit of paper
>> underneath
>>
>> Light it
>>
>> Let coals burn to red glow
>>
>> Place food into long-handled two sided grill basket
>>
>> Set encased food on the lip of the foufou cup over the coals
>>
>> Cook one side
>>
>> Flip and cook second side
>>
>>
>>
>> How it works:
>>
>> Triangular slot acts as fire-feeding air hole
>>
>> Ashes drop through incisions into stem
>>
>> When cinders/ashes are cool, they can be dumped out of the triangular slot
>> and the cup
>>
>>
>>
>> If anyone has seen one of these or knows about the historical use, I'd love
>> to know:
>>
>> 1) It seems like this design would be very fuel efficient. Is it?
>>
>> 2) Any indications of what might have been used historically for the
>> grill basket?
>>
>> 3) Any place I could see pictures of historic or museum versions?
>>
>> 4) Are you aware of any places in the US or Europe that have current
>> ones and maybe internet photos?
>>
>> 5) How wide is it at the top? Is the stem thinner or wider than the
>> cup? How stable is it?
>>
>>
>>
>> She really enjoyed using her foufou stove and used it almost daily when she
>> lived in Greece in the house that had no electricity or running water. (She
>> also had a gas hot plate.)
>>
>>
>>
>> Any leads appreciated.
>>
>>
>>
>> Sharon
>>
>> gordonse at one.net
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