When the rainbow-coloured iridescent bubbles start floating on the rasam, you know it is ready to be removed from the stove. It's then time for the all-familiar collective aroma of ghee, coriander and curry leaves to tantalise your taste buds.
Rasam is unique to south Indian cuisine. But, according to food connoisseur Revathi Shanmugam, there is a distinct difference in flavour when it is prepared in eiyachombu (pronounced ee-ya-chom-bu), a traditional utensil made of tin. “When cooked in the vessel, the rasam acquires a unique smell and flavour,” she says.
S. Narayanan, who runs his grandfather's business of selling tin utensils in Triplicane, rues that the lack of knowledge about the useful properties of the metal and has led to the decline in its use. “Cans that are used to store fruits and vegetables are actually coated with tin. Even brass vessels are coated with tin to prevent food poisoning. But unfortunately people have mistaken tin for lead,” says Mr. Narayanan. “I am 72 and am talking to you now. Every day, rasam at my home is cooked in eiyachombu and I am still healthy. It is not at all true that cooking in tin utensils can cause food poisoning.”
The tin is mostly imported from Malaysia and sold through a government quota system. The selling price of the metal is Rs.1,800-Rs.2,000 a kg.
“It requires care while using the vessel, that's why people don't want to use it,” says R. Venugopal, proprietor of a small utensil shop on South Usman Road that stocks just a dozen vessels in a crevice on the compound wall of the Shiva Vishnu temple.
The metal's melting point is around 200 degree Celsius. So, if you place the empty vessel on the stove, you might end up with a blob of silvery-white metal in a matter of minutes.
Even though the utensil is gradually vanishing from kitchens in the city, the taste of rasam cooked in eiyachombu lingers in many mouths. So much so that at wedding feasts, chefs often seek to remind guests of the traditional flavour of rasam by investing in the tin utensil: no, not to cook the rasam in it but to drop the utensil into the boiling pot of rasam so that the metal lends its flavour to the dish.
“That way, the rasam tastes as if it has been prepared in an eiyachombu,” says Arusuvai N. Kumar, a caterer.
Keywords: Rasam, south Indian cuisine
Kar-eyam is lead! There were lead vessels at homes in olden days! Other parts of the comments are valid!
We had in our house a at least half a dozen Eiya sombu-s. Mother used
to say that they should not be put directly on the aduppu, but only
with water or some liquid in it. These vessels went out of vogue after
my mother's death and were gathering dust.
We had a lady cook (whom my nephew called cookess!). She was a good
cook as cooks usually go. And she went. She left service pretending
to go to her village to tend to her pregnant sister on the verge of
delivery.It was a few weeks later that we found that she had sneaked
away the eiya paathrams one by one and sold them. That was the end of
our dalliance with eiya paathram-s.
Yes. I remember my Mom makes vadu mangai pickles for one whole year to be stored in the kalchatti. When there is no vadu mangai to be pickled, the kalchatti will be used to store pazhaya sadham and a fine curd rice will be served to all the kids roughly about 12 children (including my cousins who visit us during summer vacations). It has a natural cooling effect which is a boon during summer days in Tamilnadu.
Yes; it IS a grandmother's tale. My grand mother and my mother used the so called "eeya chombu" ( tin pot ) for making rasam and kachhatti ( kal chatti made of "soap stone" known in Tamil as mAkkal ). Technically these pots should make no difference in the quality of the finished product. Tin (kAr eeyam)is insoluble in water and in mild acids. That is why brass pots were tin coated to prevent copper and zinc in the brass vessel reacting with the acids in foods as rasam). It is all in the mind of the consumer ! Kal chatti may be different, since some of the talc could get into the food and affect the taste. That is why the kachhatti is "broken" before use, that means it is used with oily foods a few times to coat the inside. Hence Kacchatti is never washed with soap or any other detergent.
Eiya chombu with which Rasam is being made in the houses even now where
there are women above 50 yrs.Others know very little about the chombu and the special taste of Rasam made in that.we also have KACHITTI another rare vessel and the Vatha Huzhambu made out of that has also
very special and delicious taste.These two rare items are known very well to the drama viewers and lovers of Tamil stage of yester years.In
the famous Tamil play " Thanikudithanam"by Marina(staged more than 250 nos),there is a scene in which the hero would ask his newly wed wife "have you broken the Kachitti as I have told you to do so".He would tell her,'Then only my mother would scold you".The wife would
say,"I damaged the Eeya chombu as you told me .But she did not scold me,since it was already damaged and useless." The hero would then say,
"it is different in the case of Kachitti,since it was in the house
for 50 yrs."
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