Tagine

A tagine or tajine, also tajin or tagin (Arabic: طاجين, romanized: ṭajīn) is a Maghrebi dish, and the earthenware pot in which it is cooked. It is also called maraq or marqa.

The Arabic طاجين (ṭajīn) is derived from Ancient Greek τάγηνον (tágēnon) 'frying-pan, saucepan'. According to some sources, the word originates from the Persian rice dish tahchin.

According to some sources, the history of tagine dates back to the time of Harun al-Rashid, the fifth Abbasid Caliph. The concept of cooking in a tagine appears in the famous One Thousand and One Nights, an Arabic-language story collection from the 9th century.

Today, the cooking pot and its traditional broth are primarily prepared in the Middle East and North Africa, although both are popular in many other countries. There are different ways to prepare the tagine. In the original qidra style, saman (clarified butter) is used to lubricate the surface and a puree of chopped onion is added for flavour and aroma. For muqawlli-style cooking, the ingredients are placed in olive oil to enrich the flavours.

According to historian of Jewish food Gil Marks, the unique two-piece cooking vessel made from red clay called a tagine originates from the Anti-Atlas Mountains in Morocco.

Étienne Villot recounts in his book Customs and Institutions of the Indigenous People of Algeria (1888):

All indigenous women know how to make pottery, from humble cups to the immense kolla of the Kabyle Algerians. Clay pottery is very common in Algeria. Various colors, usually red, yellow, and black, are applied to the pottery pieces shaped by the women. These colors are fixed onto the clay using a varnish composed of pine resin and a bit of olive oil. Kabyle women have great skill in these types of work.

There are many descriptions of how to prepare a tagine from Arab scholars. A famous description is the one from ibn al-Adim (1192–1262):