Tagine (the pot)

What it is

The tagine is a round vessel with a flat bottom and a low rim, on which sits a large conical or domed lid; traditionally it is made of earthenware, sometimes painted or glazed.¹ In Moroccan Arabic the word denotes both the round, brown serving dish with a lid and the food served in it.²

The lid catches the rising steam and lets the condensation run back into the dish, so only a little water is needed.³ The unglazed inside also absorbs part of the liquid.⁴

Where it comes from

The Arabic word ṭājīn goes back to the Ancient Greek tágēnon, a flat clay pan.⁵

According to the Maison de l’Artisan, the five main centres of Moroccan pottery are Fez, Safi, Salé, Marrakesh and Tetouan.⁶ In Oued Laou on the Mediterranean, south-east of Tetouan, women make pottery by hand for everyday use, above all for the kitchen.⁷

In Safi, pottery is attested at least since the Almoravid period (11th century), according to the 1994 excavations at Lalla Hniya Hamriya; during the Portuguese occupation (1508–1541) it ceased, and a document of 1821 shows that the town was again a pottery centre in the early 18th century.⁸ The master potter Boujemaa Lamali founded the country’s first pottery school in 1920, which trained generations of potters and made Safi the capital of pottery; since 1990 the town has had the Musée national de la céramique.⁹ Today 1,500 to 2,000 people in Safi work directly in pottery, in more than 200 workshops on the potters’ hill and in the potters’ village; since 2025 the city has been part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.¹⁰

History

Traditionally, cooking in the tagine is done over glowing charcoal in a clay brazier, the kanun or majmar.¹¹ The kanun, a terracotta brazier with short feet and supports for the cooking pot, was the usual cooking place throughout North Africa until paraffin stoves arrived for a few decades, followed by electricity and gas; its constant partner was the tagine with its high conical lid of the same material.¹²

How to recognise it

For clay cookware, according to the Ministry of Handicrafts, binding standards apply; in all, the Ministry has drawn up 344 standards for craft products and services.¹³