Monsoon season in parts of southern India carries certain imagery with it. Though the effect of rains has transformed over decades, a few things remain unchanged — the pitter-patter of raindrops that quickly turn into torrential downpour and, if it’s lunch time, the aroma of sweet-tangy gravy wafting through the air.
A trip to the kitchen around noon, especially in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, guarantees a tasteful sight. Alongside a big pot of rice and smaller utensils with meat, vegetables and deep-fried delicacies, stands a black flat-bottomed vessel with sharp ear-like structures along the rim for cooks to carefully take it off the stove once ready.
These are soapstone cookware or kalchattis (as they are known in Tamil) are made of magnesium-rich rock found in the earth.
Seventy-eight-year-old Lakshmi’s earliest recollection of soapstone cookware is at her birth home in rural Kerala, where her mother would prepare gravies in the vessels, allowing them to slowly bubble and stew over a firewood stove.
Now, she has a set of three soapstone vessels, which she bought a few years ago at a village fair. “Like steel vessels, we cannot use this cookware immediately. We need to take time and effort to temper it and get it to a usable condition,” she says.
An artisan carving out a cookware from a block of soapstone. Courtesy: Zishta Inc
Tempering or treatment of a soapstone vessel takes anywhere between 10 and 30 days. One method is to apply a mixture of castor oil and turmeric powder on the inside and outside of the cookware and keep it aside. Then, rice starch water is poured into it and slowly boiled every day. Though this method takes around 15 to 30 days to prepare the vessel for use, Lakshmi swears by it.
“I just pour the starch water I have after I cook rice into the cookware every day and set it aside for a few hours. It takes around a month, but it is quite effortless and workable. It is like a daily ritual to get the utensil to a usable condition,” she explains. She adds that there will be a notable difference in the weight of the vessel as well, a market to determine that it is ready for cooking.
For 53-year-old Sangeetha Vasudevan, her love of tradition and cooking keeps the kalchattis alive in her kitchen. Originally from Kerala and now living in Chennai, Sangeetha’s collection of soapstone cookware was handed down to her by her mother and mother-in-law.
“Tall, bigger ones were used for dishes like sambar and avial and the medium-sized vessels were used to make vathakuzhambu (a tamarind-based gravy with sun-dried, dehydrated berries) that’s simmered for a long time. Smaller ones are for side-dishes like mango and ginger chutneys and pickles,” she says .
Sangeetha's collection of soapstone cookware
Kalchattis were also used to set curd, which retains its freshness over a few days due to the slow fermentation process, she explains.
“In those days when there were no refrigerators, kalchattis were of great use since it increased the shelf life of food by retaining heat and slowing down the fermentation. The cooking process continues for quite some time even after we take the vessel off the stove,” she says.
“Switching to soapstone cookware is a journey. It is not like modern cookware which you can just buy off the shelves and start using. There is a little bit of engagement that is needed in this process,” says Archish, one of founders of Zishta, an online marketplace for handmade products.
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Courtesy: Zishta Inc
While the introduction of new cookware is bound to disrupt the workflow in the kitchen, at least initially, eventually the cooking time gets reduced due to the heat-retention benefits of soapstone.
Unlike modern cooking, where the utensil is a mere tool to transfer heat to the ingredients, in soapstone cooking, the heat is distributed evenly. “In essence, the cooking is done by the stone and not the flame. This is also why food does not get burnt when you are using a soapstone vessel,” he says.
Traditional cooking methods often come with tremendous health benefits.
Research on using soapstone cookware has indicated that there may be a beneficial transfer of minerals like calcium and magnesium from the stone to the food while cooking, leading to better health in the long run.
“These minerals neutralise our acidic cooking, which involves a lot of spices and tamarind. This enhances the taste and reduces health issues like acid reflux and stomach burns over long-term usage,” Archish says.
Courtesy: Zishta Inc
Lakshmi, who has been regularly cooking using these vessels for over five decades, says that the food cooked in soapstone cookware is probably the safest for those with sensitive stomachs. “Chances of food poisoning are very less because there are no chemical additives onto the materials.”
Another benefit of cooking in soapstone is the capacity to retain nutrients is higher than in modern utensils, says Harini Balasubramanian, a registered dietitian and a certified diabetes educator.
“It retains 98% nutrients of the food cooked in it. It cooks food in 15% less time than modern cookware. It continues to cook for approximately 5-7 minutes after the stove is switched off. It saves fuel as well as time,” she adds.
The extraction and manufacture of quality soapstone into cookware is restricted to a belt around Salem district in Tamil Nadu, specifically Namakkal.
Madesh, a 60-year-old artisan, remembers his father carving out soapstone cookware from blocks. “My father died years ago, but he taught me how to do this. Now I am doing it. In the last 10 years or so, the demand for soapstone vessels have increased,” he says. He is a part of a small group of 15 artisans near Nangavalli village in Salem district, who have been in this field for over four decades now.
“The art of extracting the stone and making these vessels is passed down over generations. When we started researching this, there were around 25 artisans, all of over 45 years of age, who were well-versed in this craft. It takes around five-six hours after extracting the soap block to chisel a vessel out of it and it is all done by hand and not machines,” Archish says. And though it may take a lot of persuasion to convince the younger generation of the value of these products, they eventually are willingly learning the craft of making soapstone vessels, he says.
Courtesy: Zishta Inc
Some products that are unique to a particular area have been awarded Geographical Indication (GI) tags by the Department of Industry Promotion and Internal Trade, such as Erode turmeric and Salem yarn. Namakkal soapstone utensils, however, have not been awarded the tag, despite the application made in 2013, based on the craftsmanship and its insulation properties.
“There has been no movement in it. I think it would give a fillip to the craft if the GI tag is approved,” Archish says.