To make great dishes in a tandoor, you need to know how to use it! How exactly do you cook in this oven?

They call it tandoor a brazier in the form of a large bowl, in which food is cooked using the heat generated from the hot walls.

When ignited, the flame rises to a considerable height, sometimes up to a meter, therefore, tandoor is always placed in open areas.

When working with the device, strict adherence to safety rules is required. It is better not to let children near the stove.

The principle of operation of the tandoor

The food is cooked using the heat received from the inner surface of the walls, due to which the thermal processing of the food occurs evenly and quickly.

The temperature level is regulated by changing the air flow. through the ash pit - a small top cover.

The tandoor looks like a huge jug, placed on its wide part on a concrete or stone platform, and lined with bricks to the top. Below, at the place of ignition, a fire is made air draught hole with a removable cover (blower). Mouth tandoor twice as narrow as the bottom and is approximately 0.6 m. The voids between the body and the cladding are filled with a heat accumulator (sand).

How to burn the device for the first time: what should be the temperature, the amount of wood

Usually the tandoor is installed in the open area of ​​the site. The foundation needs a flat, hard surface, but in no case sand or loose dacha soil. There should be no trees, hay or other flammable materials. within a radius of several meters.

At the first and subsequent ignition the heat always increases gradually. The temperature in the chamber reaches up to three hundred degrees CelsiusThe amount of firewood placed inside is calculated based on one third of the volume of the oven itself. Use medium-sized firewood, such as for a barbecue. Close the ash pit, then light the fire with wood chips or paper.

The blower regulates the air flow. When the small cover is removed, the air flow increases, and the flame intensifies accordingly. In order for the heat to increase gradually, the door is opened a maximum of five centimeters.

If you simply lift the lid, the air flow, without finding any obstacles in its path, will sharply increase the heat, which will create risk of cracking.

The firewood is allowed to burn completely, then they wait until everything cools down.

How to use a tandoor correctly, how to light it

Any wood is suitable for kindling, preferably deciduous trees. The main thing is that the firewood is dry. The coal is not suitable for kindling: it burns out very quickly, without having time to warm up the walls of the working chamber.

One third of the oven volume — this is an average fuel loading option, the exact amount of firewood depends on the planned dish and the number of people you are going to feed. In some cases, the height of the loading can reach and two thirds of the furnace volume.

The top lid is removed and firewood is placed inside. You can leave the ash pit slightly open. When the wood burns down to the grates and the black coating disappears from the inner walls, you can put food in the oven. Now the coals are distributed in an even layer and skewers are hung, for example, with meat. There is no need to rotate them, or move them. The tandoor will cook everything itself, but the owners you'll have to keep track of time.

Cooking vegetable dishes requires no more than five minutes. The same applies to mushrooms. Fish is cooked about ten minutes, shashlik - quarter of an hour, whole chicken carcass - up to half an hour.

To form a crust, the ash pan is moved away from the ignition zone opening. five minutes before the end of cooking.

After cooking is complete, the prepared dish is removed and a new batch is added.

Photo 1. The process of preparing shashlik in a tandoor. Skewers are hung on special slats.

Hanging skewers are useful for placing products. The loading is carried out only after the oven has been heated to maximum temperature. The fact that the structure is ready for feeding products into it is indicated by the characteristic disappearance of soot from the walls. This happens in about 60 minutes after ignition.

Cleaning the tandoor

The temperature in the chamber reaches up to three hundred degrees Celsius, so there is simply nowhere for coals and soot to appear. Accordingly, the problem of carbon deposits and the choice of cleaning method will not arise. Only if the stove is used frequently will it be necessary clean with a dustpan every few years. The only difficulty is that the shovel must have a long handle so that you can get into all corners of the chamber. If you don’t have one at home, a regular household scoop with a long handle welded to it will do.

Can it be used in winter, how to heat at this time

Tandoor dishes are successfully used to treat guests in winter as well. But it is important to remember that temperature changes are extremely harmful for the oven, so each time you light it, you should first the walls of the structure are heated.

Quantity of firewood does not exceed one third of the volume tandoor. After lighting, the lid slams shut.

Only after the wall has warmed up, dry firewood can be put in for cooking. The wood is kindled and the large lid is closed.

Useful video

Watch the video, which clearly demonstrates how to use the tandoor and talks about its structure.

Nuances of use. Lighting the device for cooking for a large company

Using a tandoor does not require any special tricks, you just need to be attentive and careful.

If you want to always know exactly how hot the structure is, purchase Non-contact infrared pyrometer. It is enough to point the device's laser at the wall, and it reads the temperature from its surface.

Photo 2. Special non-contact infrared pyrometer for measuring temperature in a tandoor oven.

For preparing several dishes for a large company after two or three bookmarks Add more firewood and heat the walls of the stove to maintain the required operating temperature.

Do not use under any circumstances artificial coolers for tandoor. Let it cool down on its own. Cooling the oven with water can quickly ruin the chamber.