These tall, conical tagines manage to catch my eye every time I walk through a kitchen store. They're used for cooking the North African dish by the same name, and I've been putting serious thought into how I might possibly justify buying one.
The tagine's conical shape makes a uniquely moist, hot cooking environment for the dish being cooked. The base is wide and shallow, and the tall lid fits snugly inside. As the food cooks, steam rises into the cone, condenses, and then trickles down the sides back into the dish.
The idea is similar to cooking in a dutch oven or a slow-cooker (which, admittedly, doesn't help my justification cause very much since I already own both of those). Less liquid is needed overall and food cooks slowly until completely tender.
Tagines generally range in size from one quart, perfect for steaming couscous, to four quarts, ideal for Moroccan stews and roasts. Like dutch ovens, tagines can also go from stove-top to oven with ease.
While tagine stews are definitely the most popular and well-known dish to make in a tagine, this dish can be used for much more. Rice, couscous, and beans all do fabulously. With the lid off, a tagine could be used as a roasting dish and then be carried straight to the table. I also wonder if it might be easier to make the no-knead bread in a shallow tagine than the high-sided dutch oven.
In terms of justification, I think it's a matter of deciding how a tagine would fit into your cooking style and the cookware you already have. I've been thinking of buying a smaller dutch oven for casseroles and have also gotten more and more intrigued by clay-pot cooking. For me, buying a mid-sized tagine would satisfy both of those urges, plus my more basic desire to play around with a tagine.
These are a few of the specific tagines I've been thinking about:
• 3-Quart Tagine, $96 from Bram Cookware
• Emile Henry Flame Top 3.7-Quart Tagine, $140 from Amazon.com
• Glazed Terra Cotta Tagines, $9.96 - $19.96 from Sur la Table
Do you own a tagine? What do you cook with it?
Related: Crock Pot Meals: How to Braise in the Slow Cooker
(Image: Bram Cookware)
10 Picnic-Ready Salads to Eat Outside
Recipe: Thai Ginger Chicken Stir-Fry
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Red-and-Pink-Stripe...
Ellen's Thirties Style Small Space
Juan's Garage Turned Modern Guest House
I have a glazed terra cotta one that i've never used despite making lots of Morroccan food. I've never cured it and I'm a bit worried about doing it. I think I'll try it this summer though.
There's a great episode of Ricardo and Friends in which Ricardo explains how to use and season it on the Food Network.
whenever i go to goodwill, there are at least five of these for sale!! seems most who justify buying it don't actually end up using it. I might pick one up there for $3 though and give it a try!
I have one and use it probably once a month and LOVE it. Seasoning the ceramic was not difficult and has stayed looking and working fantastic. I do think NorNor has a good point though. If you want to try it out, buy one cheap secondhand!
Emma,
I have three and use them often. The largest is the terra cotta one that you mentioned from Sur la Table. The others are fancier with designs and colors on them. They take up a lot of space if you try to store them with your cookware. My workaround for this is to display them in my home. They are lovely just sitting out. I have a painting that I bought in Essouria Morocco and keep two on them next to this painting.
The tagines that you see in Morocco in use are crude terra cotta and are usually perched on top of a terra cotta vessel that holds burning charcoal.
See if you can get your hands on Paula Wolffert's 'Couscous and other Foods of Morocco' and give the tagine a try.... hummm, makes me want to put some lamb shanks, and, apricots, and carrots, and saffron, and... in one right now.
Your no-knead bread suggestion sounds great! Hope to hear how it works out.
Best,
I cook in my tagine all the time! I finally bought the small traditional cooker that you place under it- going to use it this summer.
But if you don't use it for a long time, cure it just in case...I had one in storage and when I went to use it, it cracked in half on the stove.
Didn't Alton Brown do an episode where he used an untreated terra cotta plant pot and water dish as a tagine? Much cheaper, same effect.
I love tagine cooking (though I don't have one myself). However, in all my time living in Morocco with a family, I never saw anyone cook or serve couscous out of a tagine--only stews (i.e. tagine!) were cooked in them.
Couscous, in my experience, was always cooked in a couscoussier--like a big steamer. You put water in the bottom and then the "colander" type device over the boiling water and fill it with raw couscous. The raw couscous is steamed by the water, but never submerged in it. Similarly, vermicelli is sometimes steamed in the top.
Interesting... Every time I see one of these I mean to come home and research its use but I always seem to forget.
I am pleased that my hypothesis of this essentially being used in the same fashion as a laboratory reflux condenser proved to be correct.
I've got one on long loan from a friend and have been plotting to use it for a while! (that recent post of a rooftop Moroccan dinner got me thinking)
Having checked with middle Easter relatives, it's apparently essential to slowly warm up the tagine before putting in in the oven or on the stove, to avoid cracks (happened to my mom's). The best solution is apparently leaving it in a sink full of hot water.
When I visit my husband's family in Morocco, they all use pressure-cookers instead!!
I have made precisely 1 thing in my tagine - post curing (which was no big deal). The issue I find is that most recipes I have seen are written for people who don't have one. I'd love to use it more often, but I need to be in the mood to do some adapting.
I came across this article and wondered if anybody tried to bake bread in the tagine? I bake mine in my Le Creuset, but wonder if there won't be too much condensation when using the tagine? Anyone? ;-). Otherwise I will just try and let you know.