Mystery cooking pot

sonastin

My fiance tells me that his father used to have what he called a "bachelor pot" - apparently some sort of clay pot which went on the stove top. It looked like a large saucepan with a lid on it and worked like an oven so for example, jacket potatoes cooked in it on the hob came out like proper oven jackets.

His father passed away a few years ago and the pot was long lost. My fiance has looked online to try to buy something similar but searching for "bachelor pot" or variations thereof doesn't really bring up anything useful. It is something that we could really make use of at the moment. Does anyone have any idea what his father used to use and where we could buy something like it now?

Apparently it was quite a fragile looking pot (perhaps explains why it went missing) and it allegedly never needed cleaning - part of its appeal if we can find one!

morganlefay

I have a thing which might be something like - it's a German pot, earthenware, called a 'Kartoffel' pot (which means 'spud') and you put it on the hob with potatoes in it and they cook slowly with no water or fat so they taste smokey and as if baked in a fire. But it is fragile, and you couldn't do anything wet like a stew in it. I have also seen things which I think are made in S America called - I think - 'terra nigra' pots or something like that. Those can be used on the hob, but you can put wet stuff in them. I think John Lewis sell them, but not sure if you could use them for potatoes ? HTH

mandragora_2

The only thing I can think of is a dutch oven - though these are made of cast iron rather than clay:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_oven

Mrs_Chip

It sounds like a potato baker to me, they are often made of clay with a handle. i will try to find a pic.

http://thecookskitchen.com/3126+Pheonix+Diablo+Potato+Baker

is this it? seems a lot of money to me to cook two potatoes!

Itismehonest

Google "Italian Potato Pot". That sounds like what you are describing.

Found a pic

sonastin

I knew someone on here would know what he was talking about! He's pretty convinced by the photo of the italian potato pot. Now to find one for sale at a reasonable price...

Thanks for your help :T