Cookware · Hearths
Degh
A vast cauldron: wedding biryani and qorma cooked for a street, not a table of four.
The journey
A degh is a pot the size of a feast. Pakistani and North Indian kitchens still hire one — or own one — for a wedding biryani, a qorma, a haleem that feeds a lane. The lid is heavy. The spoon is a paddle.
A handi is the home cousin. The degh is why the word feast still has a smell.
In the kitchen
Layer rice and meat. Seal. Keep the heat around the pot, not only under it. Rest before you open the lid to a crowd.
Pakistani and Indian volumes treat this cauldron as the festival hearth. A Dutch oven is how you practice at home.