Coal pot

A clay or iron brazier: the weekday stove of a yard, with one pot sitting on a ring of coals.

Also called coalpot, abomoo · From The Caribbean and West Africa

A clay coal pot filled with coals, a dutch pot sitting on the rim, and a wooden spoon.

The journey

A coal pot is a stove you can carry — a bowl of coals, a grate, one pot. Caribbean yards and West African compounds still cook this way when gas is a luxury or when the food wants charcoal more than a burner. The dutch pot and the stew sit on it.

A camp stove is a cousin. This one is clay or cast iron and smells of the yard.

A 1780 map of the Antilles — yards that still cook on a coal pot. — Rigobert Bonne, map of the Antilles (1780) · Public domain. Source

In the kitchen

Light charcoal in the bowl. Set the pot on the rim. Rotate if one side runs hot. Keep a second pot warming at the edge.

Caribbean and West African pages in the series assume this fire whenever a recipe still tastes of coal.

Used in these ComidaTime kitchens

Find a coal pot on Amazon