[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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