The Tandoor Site

Firing

Tandoors can be fired using wood, charcoal or gas. Restaurant ovens in the UK are invariably gas-fired. Gas is clean and controllable. A gas tandoor could be installed within a domestic kitchen if suitable extraction were supplied.

Wood and charcoal are the traditional fuels of the tandoor. Wood, or specifically hardwood, has the theoretical advantage that the smoke generated will flavour anything which cooks in the oven. Wood burns with and intense flame so will quickly heat the tandoor to cooking temperature. Wood used in the tandoor must be untreated since there is a danger of toxic treatment chemicals contaminating the food. I have so far been unable to locate a source of cheap, untreated hardwood.

That leaves charcoal. Charcoal is cheap, readily available and gives excellent results. It is relatively smoke-free which may be an advantage in some areas (although fat dripping from food will still generate a great deal of smoke).

I use about half a kilogram of charcoal to start the fire. I've found that it's best to light the fire at three separate points around the circumference of the bottom of the tandoor rather than lighting one large fire in the middle. When the fire is established I add more charcoal and partially cover the top of the oven. I've found that it's best to leave the air vent fully open while pre-heating.

With an industrial, high-temperature thermocouple I have monitored the temperature of the oven. It heats very quickly to 100 C then the temperature climbs over a couple of hours. The highest temperature so far recorded in my oven is 384 C (723 F) which was shortly after being refuelled after a couple of hours of pre-heating. The temperature plummets when the top is fully uncovered, I've seen it drop 100 C in just a couple of minutes. However, with a second thermocouple I have monitored the temperature of the outside skin of the clay liner and this stays high - allowing the interior temperature to recover quickly when the top is covered after loading.

The oven should be ready to cook about an hour and a half to two hours after lighting the charcoal. If you can't hold your hand in it for more than a few seconds then it's probably ready. You could cook sooner but you would be relying on the radiated heat of the charcoal rather than the stored heat of the clay liner.