A ''tava(h)'' / ''tawa(h)'' (mainly on the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

), ''saj'' (in Arabic), ''sac'' (in Turkish), and other variations, is a metal cooking utensil. The tawa is round and is usually curved: the concave side is used as a wok or frying pan, the convex side for cooking flatbreads and

pancake A pancake, also known as a hotcake, griddlecake, or flapjack, is a flat type of batter bread like cake, often thin and round, prepared from a starch-based Batter (cooking), batter that may contain eggs, milk, and butter, and then cooked on a ...

s. There are also flat tawas. The Indian tawa might have a handle or not, and it can be made of

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

aluminium Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

, or

carbon steel Carbon steel is a steel with carbon content from about 0.05 up to 2.1 percent by weight. The definition of carbon steel from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) states: * no minimum content is specified or required for chromium, cobalt ...

. It may be enameled or given a non-stick surface. The tawa and saj are used in the cuisines of

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

, Central, and West Asia, as well as of the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...

and the

Balkans The Balkans ( , ), corresponding partially with the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throug ...

. The tawa is also used in

Indo-Caribbean Indo-Caribbean or Indian-Caribbean people are people from the Caribbean who trace their ancestry to the Indian subcontinent. They are descendants of the Jahaji indentured laborers from British India, who were brought by the British, Dutch, and ...

cuisine.

Names by region

Taaba, Tava, tawa

In Iran, the Persian word ''tāve'' () is used which is derived from the Persian word taaba which means something that is curved or tempered. The root word ''taab'' in Persian is a verb which means to bend or temper or curve (but see here-below for the use of ''saj'' in Iran). It is cognate with ''tawaa'', a word which in nearly all

Indo-Aryan languages The Indo-Aryan languages, or sometimes Indic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. As of 2024, there are more than 1.5 billion speakers, primarily concentrated east ...

such as Punjabi,

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

and

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

means cooking pan. In Afghanistan, the curved cast-iron utensil used for cooking bread is known as ''tawah'', but in

Pashto Pashto ( , ; , ) is an eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyb ...

it is more popularly known as ''tabakhey'' (). The Georgian cognate is ''tapa'' ().

Saj, sac

''Saj'' (, ''lit.'' sheet-metal) is the equivalent of ''tava'' in Arabic, with the equivalent ''sac'' in Turkish, and is used in Southwest Asia. In Iran, ''saj'' is used for the curved iron plate employed in cooking bread (but see here-above for the use of ''tāve'' in Iran).

Variants, change of meaning

The word ''tava'' is also used in Turkish and all across the Balkans, and refers to any kind of frying pan. In Serbia and Bulgaria however, a ''тава'' (''tava'') is a metal baking tray with raised margins (for the meaning of ''sach'' in those same countries, see here-below). In Romanian too, ''tava'' can mean baking tray, such as employed for baking in an oven, but it can also mean tray, such as used for serving food and drink. The sač is a saj-shaped lid used as a cooking utensil in the Balkans. In Serbia and Bulgaria, the flat ceramic ''сач'' (''sach'') or ''сачѐ'' (''sachè'') is used for table-top cooking of thin slices of vegetables and meat (for the meaning of ''tava'' in those same countries, see here-above). Pita.jpg, Pita being baked on a convex saj Food_Gechresh_Azerbaijan_01.jpg, Reversible Azerbaijani sac with handles Markouk - Bread on Saje.jpg, Markouk being baked on a convex saj

Uses

A ''tava'' or ''saj'' is used to bake a variety of leavened and unleavened flatbreads and

s across the broad region: pita, naan, saj bread, roti, chapati,

paratha Paratha (, also parantha/parontah) is a flatbread native to the Indian subcontinent, with earliest reference mentioned in early medieval Sanskrit, India. It is one of the most popular flatbreads in the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East. ...

, dosa, and pesarattu. In Pakistan, especially in rural areas, large convex ''saj'' are used to cook several breads at the same time or to make rumali roti. File:Woman Baking Bread on Saj Oven in Artas, West Bank, Palestine.JPG, A Palestinian woman baking ''markook'' on a saj in a West Bank village File:Fulka Roti.jpg, A roti being baked on a tava File:Gözleme Break (6335105588).jpg, Gözleme, a filled bread, being baked on a sac File:Preparation of qurasah.jpg, Manasir woman preparing ''qurasah'' (قراصة), the daily bread on Sherari Island in Dar al-Manasir in Northern

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

File:Tawa sabji.jpg, Vegetables fried in a tawa File:Aloo chaat vendor, Connaught Place, New Delhi.jpg, Aloo chaat being cooked in a large tava File:Fishes_fried_in_Dosai_pan.JPG, Fish frying in a tawa

References

Sources

* * * * {{Cooking Techniques Cooking vessels Pancakes Middle Eastern cuisine South Asian cuisine Central Asian cuisine Pakistani food preparation utensils Indian food preparation utensils Bangladeshi food preparation utensils