If you have read Sally Fallon’s Nourishing traditions book or ever visited the Weston Price Foundation site what you witness in common is correct nutrition and diet through thought-provoking articles and guide to traditional foods necessary for normal growth, proper function of the brain and nervous system, protection from disease and optimum energy levels. When I was a new mother in the block, albeit being a strict vegetarian I plainly followed Sally’s advice on raising a healthy child from childbirth onwards making bone broths to medicines purely from a nutrition standpoint.
Along the way during my bone broth journey few questions kept popping in the corner of my mind asking “what other kind of traditional Brazilian soapstone cookware our ancestors cooked in other than Brass, Bronze, Copper & Iron. Now why this question? To be precise, my mom used only stainless-steel cookware in her kitchen. But on the contrary whenever I visited my grandparent’s home, I had always observed my grandmother’s kitchen being stacked with brass, bronze, copper, iron utensils, wooden canisters, silver plates, and tumblers.
A decade later when she passed away, as my dad was getting rid of most of her belongings, of them I picked her brass cookware and silver dinnerware items and decided to inherit it without any bit of clue what I was going to do with them. In quest for more vintage stuff, I went forward to her attic. Voila! spotted a heavy pot without a lid cracked from the outside with dark luster still intact. When I asked my mom, she said it was called Kalchatti. Indian name to Soapstone cooking pot Kal (means stone) chatti (hollow pot). (Picture on the left – My grandmother’s soapstone pot nearing its 100yrs of making).
When I began my hunt in hunger to know more about soapstone cookware in a few months’ time with very little information in hand I boldly went ahead to begin cooking heirloom recipes in my grandmother’s soapstone pot. While it took me a while to adapt to cook in them and also sense the difference, but after I did its certainly soapstone cookware I cook in, eat in, & drink in. Today I come to believe the nutrition of your food is not only reliant on the ingredients that you add to cook but also in the cookware you cook your food in.
Did you know that first level of food reactions happens at the beginning stage of cooking and later when consumed? Food when cooked in the correct kind of cookware, not only leads to an increase in nutrient quotient absorption boosting mineral content but prevents the loss of nutrients due to high heat cooking. In fact, Ayurveda says that food should not be overcooked, nor re-heated & should be consumed warm within 24hours of each passing day.
The big deal about Soapstone pots and pans is it is not “Like steel vessels” we cannot just put them to immediate use as soon as you buy of the shelf. Traditionally it was a practice to season them for a period of 15 to 30 days before you even put them to cooking use. The popular method used for curing alienated into two parts. First was to apply a thin mixture of castor oil and turmeric powder both on the inside and outside of the cookware and place them under direct sunlight for a continuous period of 15 days while the latter was to be pour starchy rice water into it and bring them to a slow boil every day for another period of 15 days. Though this method was lengthy and painstaking as it took around 30 days to prepare the soapstone cookware for use it was worth every effort that it made the food taste clean and pure. In present day innovative space, seasoning is done using a regular baking oven. Albeit the process is short, but the efficacy is not lost.
Soapstone pots continues to be absolute, even after harvest in maintaining temperatures hot or cold requiring minimal energy during cooking, baking, and serving, a traditional practice used for centuries. The thick walls and density of soapstone retains heat twice as long as other cookware facilitating to function both as cookware as well as a serving piece.
We absolutely love our soapstone cookware, accentuated with copper handles for easy handling eco-friendly sustainable properties, and we think you will adore it just the way we do. Winding up this write up I encourage you to try your hand at soapstone cooking and personally recommend starting off making healthy nutritious bone broth and soups with an easy and delicious classic Soapstone 4.0 Liter pot. that will effortlessly get you to start off just like me. Enjoy!
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