Tagine Cooking

Tagine cooking uses a distinctive Moroccan earthenware vessel, made up of a shallow, circular clay skillet and a tall, cone- or dome-shaped lid, whose conical shape captures rising steam and returns the condensation to the food below, so that a dish inside braises, steams and bakes at once while using only a minimal amount of water. This design made the technique especially valuable in water-scarce regions, where water for cooking meat and vegetables was limited or where public water was not yet available. The vessel itself originated in Tafraout, Morocco, and while the word tagine derives from the Ancient Greek tagenon, meaning frying pan, the cooking method it describes is now used across North African cuisines including Algerian, Libyan, Tunisian and Egyptian cooking as well as Moroccan.