A tajine or tagine ( ar, طاجين) is a North African dish, named after the

earthenware Earthenware is glazed or unglazed nonvitreous pottery that has normally been fired below . Basic earthenware, often called terracotta, absorbs liquids such as water. However, earthenware can be made impervious to liquids by coating it with a ce ...

pot in which it is cooked. It is also called or .

Etymology

The Arabic () is derived from the

Berber Berber or Berbers may refer to: Ethnic group * Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa * Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages Places * Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile People with the surname * Ady Berber (1913–196 ...

'shallow earthen pot', from Ancient Greek () 'frying-pan, saucepan'.

Origin

According to Rebecca Jones, in the 1990s, the late Dr Vivien Swan identified pottery from various sites on Scotland's

Antonine Wall The Antonine Wall, known to the Romans as ''Vallum Antonini'', was a turf fortification on stone foundations, built by the Romans across what is now the Central Belt of Scotland, between the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth. Built some twe ...

, built by the Numidian governor of Roman Britain,

Quintus Lollius Urbicus Quintus Lollius Urbicus was a Numidian Berber governor of Roman Britain between the years 139 and 142, during the reign of the Emperor Antoninus Pius. He is named in the ''Historia Augusta'', although it is not entirely historical, and his name ...

, of a north African style, one being a casserole dish that may have been a precursor to the modern tajine. Fragments of tajines have also been identified among Numidian ceramics in modern-day Tunisia. According to some sources, the history of tagine dates back to the time of Harun al-Rashid, the fifth Abbasid Caliph. The concept of cooking in a tajine appears in the famous ''

One Thousand and One Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...

'', an Arabic-language story collection from the 9th century. Today, the cooking pot and its traditional broth are primarily prepared in the Middle East and North Africa. There are different ways to prepare the tajine. In the original qidra style, ( clarified butter) is used to lubricate the surface and a puree of chopped onion is added for flavour and aroma. For -style cooking, the ingredients are placed in

olive oil Olive oil is a liquid fat obtained from olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea''; family Oleaceae), a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin, produced by pressing whole olives and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking: f ...

to enrich the flavours. According to the historian of Jewish food Gil Marks, the unique two-piece cooking vessel made from red clay called tajine originates from Morocco (

Anti-Atlas The Anti-Atlas ( ar, الأطلس الصغير, shi, Aṭlas Mẓẓiyn), also known as Lesser Atlas or Little Atlas is a mountain range in Morocco, a part of the Atlas Mountains in the northwest of Africa. The Anti-Atlas extends from the Atlanti ...

Mountains). There are many descriptions of how to prepare a tajine from Arab scholars. A famous description is the one from ibn al-Adim (1192–1262): Tagine aux olives algérien

Pottery

The traditional tajine pottery, sometimes painted or glazed, consists of two parts: a circular base unit that is flat with low sides and a large cone- or dome-shaped cover that sits on the base during cooking. The cover is designed to return all

condensation Condensation is the change of the state of matter from the gas phase into the liquid phase, and is the reverse of vaporization. The word most often refers to the water cycle. It can also be defined as the change in the state of water vapor to ...

to the bottom. That process can be improved by adding cold water into the specially designed well at the top of the lid. Tajine is traditionally cooked over hot charcoal leaving an adequate space between the coals and the tajine pot to avoid having the temperature rise too quickly. Large bricks of charcoal are used, specifically for their ability to stay hot for hours. Other methods are to use a tajine in a slow oven or on a gas or electric stove top, on the lowest heat necessary to keep the stew simmering gently. A diffuser, a circular utensil placed between the tajine and the flame, is used to evenly distribute the stove's heat. European manufacturers have created tajines with heavy cast-iron bottoms that can be heated on a cooking stove to a high temperature, which permits the browning of meat and vegetables before cooking. Tajine cooking may be replicated by using a slow cooker or similar item, but the result will be slightly different. Many ceramic tajines are decorative items as well as functional cooking vessels. Some tajines, however, are intended only to be used as decorative serving dishes.

Algerian and Moroccan tajine

Algerian and Moroccan tajine dishes are slow-cooked savory stews, typically made with sliced meat, poultry or fish together with vegetables or fruit. Spices, nuts, and dried fruits are also used. Common spices include

ginger Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice A spice is a seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices ...

cumin Cumin ( or , or Article title
) (''Cuminum cyminum'') is a

turmeric,

cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, breakfa ...

, and saffron.

Paprika Paprika ( US , ; UK , ) is a spice made from dried and ground red peppers. It is traditionally made from ''Capsicum annuum'' varietals in the Longum group, which also includes chili peppers, but the peppers used for paprika tend to be milder an ...

and chili are used in vegetable tajines. The sweet and sour combination is common in tajine dishes like lamb with prunes and spices. Tajines are generally served with bread. Because the domed or cone-shaped lid of the tajine pot traps steam and returns the condensed liquid to the pot, a minimal amount of water is needed to cook meats and vegetables. This method of cooking is important in areas where water supplies are limited or where public water is not yet available.

Tunisian tajine

What Tunisians refer to as a "tajine" is very different from other forms of the dish. Tunisian tajine is more like an Italian

frittata Frittata is an egg-based Italian dish similar to an omelette or crustless quiche or scrambled eggs, enriched with additional ingredients such as meats, cheeses, or vegetables. The word ''frittata'' is Italian and roughly translates to "fried". H ...

or an eggah. First, a simple ragout is prepared, of meat cut into very small pieces, cooked with onions and spices, such as a blend of dried rose buds and ground cinnamon known as ''

baharat ( ar, بَهَارَات; 'spices') is a spice mixture or blend used in Middle Eastern cuisines. The mixture of finely ground spices is often used to season lamb and mutton, fish, chicken, beef, and soups, and may also be used as a condiment. ...

'' or a robust combination of ground

coriander Coriander (;

and caraway seeds; this is called tabil. Then something starchy is added to thicken the juices. Common thickeners include

cannellini bean The kidney bean is a variety of the common bean ('' Phaseolus vulgaris''). It resembles a human kidney and thus is named after such. Red kidney beans should not be confused with other red beans, such as adzuki beans. Classification There ar ...

chickpea The chickpea or chick pea (''Cicer arietinum'') is an annual legume of the family Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae. Its different types are variously known as gram" or Bengal gram, garbanzo or garbanzo bean, or Egyptian pea. Chickpea seeds are high ...

breadcrumb Bread crumbs or breadcrumbs (regional variants including breading and crispies) consist of crumbled bread of various dryness, sometimes with seasonings added, used for breading or crumbing foods, topping casseroles, stuffing poultry, thickeni ...

s or cubed potatoes. When the meat is tender, it is combined with the ingredients which have been chosen to be the dominant flavouring. Examples include fresh

parsley Parsley, or garden parsley (''Petroselinum crispum'') is a species of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae that is native to the central and eastern Mediterranean region (Sardinia, Lebanon, Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, southern Italy, Greece, Por ...

, dried mint, saffron, sun-dried tomatoes, cooked vegetables and stewed calves' brains. Next, the stew is enriched with cheese and eggs. Finally, this egg and stew are baked in a deep pie dish, either on the stove or in the oven until top and bottom are crisply cooked and the eggs are just set. When the tajine is ready, it is turned out onto a plate and sliced into squares, accompanied by wedges of lemon. Tunisian tajines can also be made with seafood or as a completely vegetarian dish. In rural parts of Tunisia, home cooks place a shallow earthenware dish over olive-wood coals, fill it, cover it with a flat earthenware pan, and then pile hot coals on top. The resulting tajine is crusty on top and bottom, moist within and is infused with a subtle smoky fragrance.

Maghrebi Jewish tagine

Maghrebi Jews :''See Mashriqi Jews for more information about Jews in the rest of North Africa and Western Asia.'' Maghrebi Jews ( or , ''Maghrebim'') or North African Jews ( ''Yehudei Tzfon Africa'') are ethnic Jews who had traditionally lived in the Maghre ...

also eat and prepare tagine, owing to their historic presence in North Africa. Tagine is a very important dish in

Sephardi cuisine Sephardic Jewish cuisine is an assortment of cooking traditions that developed among the Sephardi Jews. Those of this Iberian origin who were dispersed in the Sephardic Diaspora ultimately became the Eastern Sephardim and North African Sepha ...

, and is commonly eaten and prepared by

Moroccan Jews Moroccan Jews ( ar, اليهود المغاربة, al-Yahūd al-Maghāriba he, יהודים מרוקאים, Yehudim Maroka'im) are Jews who live in or are from Morocco. Moroccan Jews constitute an ancient community dating to Roman times. Jews b ...

, Algerian Jews, Tunisian Jews, Libyan Jews,

Djerban Jews The history of the Jews in Tunisia extended nearly two thousand years and goes back to the Punic era. The Jewish community in Tunisia is no doubt older and grew up following successive waves of immigration and proselytism before its develo ...

, and also by French Jews,

Jewish American American Jews or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by religion, ethnicity, culture, or nationality. Today the Jewish community in the United States consists primarily of Ashkenazi Jews, who descend from diaspora Je ...

s, and Israelis, due to the large population of Sephardim in those countries. Tagine is a mainstay of Sephardic cuisine commonly prepared for

Shabbat Shabbat (, , or ; he, שַׁבָּת, Šabbāṯ, , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical storie ...

dinners in the Sephardi community, and served with couscous. Sephardim from different regions prepare different styles of Tagine, for instance Moroccan Jews often prepare tagine with dried fruits, while Tunisian Jews often prepare a vegetable tagine containing potatoes, carrots, and zucchini cut into a large dice. Tagine is also commonly prepared for Jewish holidays such as

Rosh Hashanah Rosh HaShanah ( he, רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה, , literally "head of the year") is the Jewish New Year. The biblical name for this holiday is Yom Teruah (, , lit. "day of shouting/blasting") It is the first of the Jewish High Holy Days (, , " ...

and the Yom Kippur

break fast A break-fast is a meal eaten after fasting. In Judaism, a break fast is the meal eaten after Ta'anit (religious days of fasting), such as Yom Kippur. During a Jewish fast, no food or drink is consumed, including bread and water. The two major fa ...

Gallery

File:Tajine potter.jpg, Tajine potter File:Kelaa-des-Mgouna (rosino-02).jpg, Tajine cooking File:ElectricalTajine3.jpg, Electrical tajine File:Place Jemaa el-Fna - Aicha n°1 - Marrakech - Morocco - Maroc - Maroko - Μαρόκο - Fas - Marruecos - Marokko - Марокк picture image photo (9123932853).jpg, Stovetop cooking of tajine File:Tajin aux pruneaux.JPG, Tajine with lamb, prunes and almonds File:Meatballtajine.jpg, Algerian tajine with chicken, meatballs and olives

References

External links

{{African cuisine Algerian cuisine Arab cuisine Cookware and bakeware Cypriot cuisine Mizrahi Jewish cuisine Maghrebi cuisine Mediterranean cuisine Moroccan cuisine North African cuisine Sephardi Jewish cuisine Staple foods Stews Tunisian cuisine Middle Eastern cuisine Berber cuisine