Gas Tandoor/Barbeque From Old Earthen Water Pot

Here in India, and many part of asia people use earthen pot for everyday water needs. A new earthen pot keeps the water cool without the need of refrigerator. Once the pot is old, like after 2-3 years of use, its water cooling capacity reduces due to salt deposition in its pores. These pots are normally discarded. A typical earthen pot's shape is traditionally the same as of a Tandoor (bell shaped), just that it is smaller. Seeing that, I had an idea of converting a water earthen pot to a gas tandoor. So basically this will sit on (reversed) the gas stove for its heat source, we can also put coal into it for that added flavor. The Concept art diagram will help to understand the design more. This will work more better with old earthen water pot, as it is kind of seasoned with water.

• Old Earthen water pot
• Old handle
• Old Sieve
• Grill stand (I used one from my convection oven)
• Hexo blade
• Driller

The first step is to create few holes at the mouth of the pot. I did 3 holes with a driller. This will help in air movement.

For tandoor to work properly we will place the pot upside down on gas stove. The next step is to cut the bottom part for opening. I measured 2/5 from bottom and made a cut with hexo blade. You can use angle grinder, but I'm not sure if that would break the pot or not, also I don't have one, so did not try. It took me 3 days to cut the pot, as it is a slow process and had to take care that the pot does not break.

For the handle, drill two holes at the bottom. Put some metal busher and screw the handle. And you are done. Next put the sieve at the mouth of the pot and put stand on top of it.

If you don't have a stand, you can use a wire mesh. Make some holes near the cut area and fit the wire mesh with some wires and you are ready to roll.

Now it's time to put the pot to a test. So we first tried to grill some barbecue. We placed the pot on top of a stove upside down, started the stove, put some coal in the sieve and close the lid. After some time the pot was hot enough. Then it was time to put in some skewers on top of the stand, and close the lid. The barbecue came out yummy, with smoky flavour.

We made pizza in this, it was super success. the base was crispy. Also tried Nan, which was also great. Nan can be done in two ways, you can put it on the stand or you can stick up on the lid applying some water on nan.

The design can be improved by putting some kind of insulation near the cut, but that will be for next time, until then happy eating ;).