Perfecting the Moroccan Tagine

Some food, before people perfected its flavor and mass satisfaction underwent through thorough researches and improvement for very long time. Remarkable recipes and satisfying tastes are those worth of giving time because perfection is best being attained slowly. Elements of our special traditional meals are being improved daily by modernity of new cooking. The utensils, instruments and the medium of cooking changed through time to attain the best flavor and satisfy our cravings for our favorite meals.

Morrocan Tagine is a traditional cooking of northern Africa, particularly in Morocco where the slow-cooked stew is inside a circular pot with parabolic cover extending to the pot’s base. Originally these pots were made of red clays or averagely hard earth stones. The temperature capacity of the whole structure helps the closure of internal juices and oils, which is the best characteristic of a stew. Traditional cooking of tagine is being replaced with the modern way. Though the cooking features are still the same, different pot compositions and varieties of pots are being introduced to provide the maximum tagine cooking experience.

The meat variety, which is the very basis of the dish’s classifications, is being considered in making different pots for cooking. For hard–to-cook meat tagine such as Moroccan Beef Tagine and Moroccan Lamb Tagine, ideal types of tagine pot must be of iron-alloyed lid and thick metallic base. It promotes great heating and simmering to achieve more tender meat. It also locks in the rich flavor of the recipes and the nutrients as well. The metal cover is also great for cooking tagine in oven. With the tight covering, the compressed expanding air inside the pot locks in the juices in the beef and lamb. These different metal tagine pots are also present in different colors and designs of your choice. For easy-to-cook meat tagine like Moroccan Chicken Tagine, the traditional clay pot can still provide better cooking. There are also improved clay pots containing shards of metal within, which provides better heating conduction. Others are glazed with metal coating but still having clay cores. Applied temperature for clay pots has a range for these might crack in intensely high flames. Chicken meat does not need to be pressured too much and it can attain tenderness through slow and mild cooking process. There are several varieties of clay tagine pots and these are much cheaper than the metal ones. They are less durable but good for home and occasional cooking.

Another Moroccan Tagine recipe, which does not include tendering meat, is the Moroccan Vegetable Tagine. The main ingredients are vegetables, such as peas, corn, potatoes and other root and green crops. Too much heating of vegetables may lead to loss and destruction of nutrients and so clay pots are used for this recipe. There are tagine pots with thick base and cover, perfect for simmering vegetable stews. After cooking, the thick base and cover maintains the heat within the body of the pot, hence lasting the preferred hotness of the vegetables.