I happened to see a news story about a stylish donabe that can also be used as a steamer.
Donabe are pots made out of a special clay for use over an open flame in Japanese cuisine.
Donabe comes with a lid made of the same material, which allows you to stew efficiently by placing it on the fire with the lid on. Also, it is of a moderate depth so that it can be served as is on the dining table as a serving dish.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donabe
We cook quite a lot in pots at home, but the bottom of ours has cracked… I keep thinking I need to replace it, but I’m still using it (frugal…).
But speaking of which, right after it cracked, I thought the pot’s juice was seeping out because it was making a sizzling sound when I put it on the fire, but at some point, it stopped making that sound.
On the page I was looking at to check the size of the earthen pot, there was a section on “how to fix a cracked pot”, and it seems that a crack in itself is not a fatal problem. Hmm. Of course, if the crack progresses, the pot will split in two, so I need to replace it at some point. But so far, it doesn’t seem to be getting any worse.
By the way, I’ve been using an earthen pot + cassette stove for the past 2-3 years.
My parents’ home used an electric pot, and my wife’s family also only has an electric pot.
There was some resistance to using a cassette stove in the living room of an apartment… but I guess it’s not that dangerous if used correctly.
However, caution is necessary. Unlike a gas stove, a cassette stove doesn’t have a mechanism to stop the gas in case of a fire, so it’s dangerous to take your eyes off it.
In other words, when the fire goes out due to spillage or something, a gas stove is designed to stop, but a cassette stove continues to emit gas. As a result, the gas fills the surroundings and could potentially lead to an explosion.
Moreover, the canister needs to be warmed up or else the gas won’t come out because it cools down due to latent heat of vaporization, so there’s a mechanism to warm it up. The only source of heat is your own fire, so you’re using the heat of the “fire”. If you put something large on top and disrupt the balance of heat dissipation, the canister could overheat and explode. Well, that’s a common story.
So, a cassette stove is quite a dangerous tool if not used with caution, understanding its structure and risks.
Well, in reality, liquid fuels are more dangerous than gas. Even a full gas cartridge only has the heat equivalent of 250cc of diesel fuel. Since diesel is used in liter units, liquid fuels are overwhelmingly more dangerous in terms of difficulty in extinguishing a fire when ignited.
However, gas is dangerous because it can easily be converted into heat, i.e., it can easily cause an explosion. Especially in the case of typical apartments, compared to wooden houses, there are limited parts that can become blast dispersal holes, so it’s not unreasonable to be cautious.
And, as it turns out, many apartments have strict restrictions on open flames. The apartment I was considering buying recently also had a ban. This varies widely, and I get the impression that the higher the grade, the more likely it is to be banned.
Regardless of what heat source you use, making a hot pot in an earthen pot has a certain charm. Look.
This wouldn’t look as tasty if made in a hand pot. (One from my bachelor days)
And to come full circle, I’ve actually been thinking I want a slightly better house.
There are many types of luxuries, but the one I want right now is “3 minutes walk from the station”.
Until recently, it was a detached house with a garage, but… well, various things happened.
And I’ve looked at a few apartments near the station, but all the ones where I could see the management rules were all no open flames. I guess high-grade apartments are more likely to ban open flames.
That means I can’t use an earthen pot… I thought rich people didn’t know about charm… but it seems this earthen pot at the beginning can be used on an IH [Induction Heating] stove too.
If so, you can just keep it warm on a tabletop IH.
I guess there’s always a certain demand for people who want to make hot pots even if open flames are banned. I thought so today.