Tandoori Oven Question

jenericzac

I've seen that some people on here have a Tandoori Oven in addition to also having their egg. Is there anything in particular that a Tandoori Oven can do that the egg can't? What are the advantages of using a Tandoori Oven, if any?

Little Steven

Canugghead or Cali would be better able to answer this than I would. One problem I have had is trying to support tandoor skewers in the egg. The other is naan. I've had some success by using two platesetters and getting the egg as hot as I can but you use a lot of lump and have to put up with some burnt hair and skin. The heat source in a tandoor is offset from the walls. I've fooled around with a few things to get the exact effects but not perfect yet. One thing that shows some promise is a heavy screen that I formed into an 8" tube. Put the lump on the outside of the tube and lit. Worked pretty well for the skewers. I used a metal pasta strainer in the bottom with some of the holes slotted out to hold the skewers.

henapple

and have to put up with some burnt hair and skin.

Sounds like Salado.

Canugghead

I own a small home sized tandoor oven, agree with everything LS said. It's got incredible thermal mass, capable of reaching and maintaining high temp with significantly less lump than the eggs.  It has to be preheated gradually to avoid thermal shock, great chance to use up leftover peameal sized lump crumbs from the eggs!

Naan cook:
You can stick naan on the wall of course, but I must admit it's a bit tricky because of the small size, the bottom half chars if it's slapped too low... it's also almost impossible to stick your hand in if the inferno is too hot. A full sized tandoor should be less challenging but it'll use more lump. The dough should also be sticky, if it's too dry it's hard to stick and your hand stays in too long and that's when you really feel the singe!  For large crowd, I actually find it easier to cook the naan direct in the egg (no fancy double platesetter and what not) while the small tandoor is packed with tandoori chicken.

Tandoori chicken cook:
This is where the tandoor really shines. Even with the exact same marinade, the chicken from the tandoor tastes very different from the egg's, think authentic Indian restaurant flavour profile ... must be the special clay and animal hair used for reinforcement. Also, you don't need special rings, pots, etc. to mimic tandoor in the egg, just stick the whole skewers in with occasional rotation.

Other potentials:
I plan to build a drop-in rack for cooking whole chickens, whole cauliflower, pizza, etc. should be fun!

caliking

I built a tandoor out of a 55gal drum several years ago. @henapple is mad jelly about it. I don't have some of the issues mentioned by canugghead with mine because it is taller (about 36" high).

The key difference is that the meat cooks vertically, one benefit of which is self-basting. Juices from the chunk above stop on the chunk below. Also the heat is more even IMO. When you lay a skewer horizontally on the egg, meat doesn't cook evenly.

What really keeps me up at night is that naans are supposed to be cooked on the wall of the tandoor, so that the face of the naan sees the fire. You can't really do this on the egg.

But for versatility, the egg is hard to beat. You can make great tandoori food, Neapolitan style pizza, smoke a brisky, and all kinds of other stuff.

@canugghead - SWMBO would take a small bowl of water outside when making naans. She would dab some water on one side of the dough after shaping it, right before slapping that side onto the wall of the tandoor. Never had a problem with the naan sticking this way.

jenericzac

Thanks for the info on the Tandoori ovens. I was thinking about building one as a side project and just didn't know if it was worth the effort. I have a cracked egg base that was replaced and wanted to try to do something with it so I didn't just have to throw it in the trash. Not sure of the ethics on it but just hate to throw things out that could be repurposed.  I guess I could always use it as a patio planter?