Curing the Clay Pot for First Time Use

You must prepare the tandoor’s clay portion once before starting it for the first time. This seals and treats the clay, which in turn extends the life of your Tandoor.

For best results, repeat this procedure once every 2-3 months.

Ingredients:

• Mustard oil 1.5Litres
• Jaggery (gur) 1Kg
• Spinach (Palak) 1Kg
• Salt 10 Teaspoon
• Turmeric Powder (halide)
• 10 teaspoon Directions:

1. Mix (grind) the above-mentioned ingredients in a pot until it becomes liquid.
2. Rub with a cloth on the clay portion of your tandoor.
3. Let the tandoor absorb the mixture for 30 min.
4. Then repeat steps 2 and 3 another three times.
5. Light up your tandoor on LOW heat for 4 hours.
6. Then, switch to MEDIUM heat for 4 hours.
7. NEVER use HIGH heat.
8. After the tandoor cools down, remove the remainder of the mixture from your tandoor using a soft moist cloth.

Our Unit is then ready to use for cooking bread/naan etc.

We use extensive methods to cure the tandoor.

Clay-pot ovens called Tandoor or Tandoori ovens have been used for centuries in eastern Mediterranean and central Asian regions to prepare meat recipes and special kind of leavened flat breads. After the tandoor manufacturing process and before any tandoor can be put into production is cured or seasoned to get used to heat and fire.

A variety of methods have been developed over the years to season the tandoors to cook the tandoori recipes to perfection. There are some who have extensive methods to cure the tandoor, some use very simple methods, while a few chefs don’t cure their tandoor. On balance, most chefs cure the tandoors.

Is it required to cure a tandoor? And why should a tandoor be seasoned?

The answer is that yes, it is necessary to season a traditional tandoori oven. The purpose of seasoning the tandoor is to have a surface that will neither allow the raw dough to fall off nor will let the finished naan to stick and eventually burn. Also while seasoning the fresh clay, objective is to increase inside temperature gradually to make sure that clay does not crack.

Not recommended

We DO NOT recommend the following tandoor curing process. It is waste of time and very hard to get all steps in a short period of time.

Initially, and before firing the tandoor, apply 2 coats of masala/paste for curing purpose. This paste is made with ground spinach (Palak), 250 grams of mustard oil (or any oil), 50 grams of jaggery, 5 – 6 eggs, 2 teaspoons of turmeric, and a pinch of salt. Mix this stuff thoroughly and apply it to the inner portion of the tandoor. Let this paste dry for 8 hrs.

Warning

If somebody is using the above method, Mainra Traders does give any six month warranty for the unit.

Once the temperature of the tandoor is optimum, a naan stuck to the walls won’t fall off. Each component of the seasoning plays a different role.

Finally safe and gentle handling will always increase the life of a tandoor.