Tsoukali

A tall clay stew pot: bean soups and Lenten dishes that want an overnight fire.

Also called tsoukali pot · From Greece

A tall clay tsoukali of bean soup with olive oil at the rim and dried oregano.

The journey

Tsoukali is the everyday clay pot of a Greek house — taller than a gastra, used for fasolada, chickpeas, and anything that should sit on the edge of a wood oven. Island and mainland kitchens still keep one on the shelf.

A metal pot rushes the beans. Clay is why they taste sweet.

A 1741 map of Greece — the houses whose bean pot is still a tsoukali. — Homann Heirs, map of ancient Greece (1741) · Public domain. Source

In the kitchen

Soak the pot if it is new. Start beans in cold water. Keep the lid slightly ajar so the broth reduces without breaking.

The Greek volume's bean and Lenten pages assume this pot. A Dutch oven is the weekday stand-in.

Used in these ComidaTime kitchens

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