What is a degchi?
What is a Deg – A Deg is a kitchen utensil in the Indian kitchens for the purpose of cooking.
Deg is deep and has a broad mouth, and there are a wide variety of sweet & savoury dishes cooked throughout the Indian subcontinent using the deg. Traditionally, a degchi was made from brass, copper or clay, but now cast iron and stainless steel & aluminium are preferred.
The deg is utilised mainly for cooking purposes, especially for slow-cooking. For example when any dish is cooked in the deg – the lid is sealed to it, using dough so steam cannot escape, preserving the nutrients in the food.
Cooking in these pots gives the meat, cheese, vegetables and other dishes a special aroma. Caking at the bottom of pots, and acidic and alkaline reactions with metals, are eliminated. Pots used in Kashmir are generally round bottomed, to make stirring and turning of the contents easy.