Hand Hammered Brass Kadhai with Kalai Lining

Rs. 4,099.00

Hand Hammered Brass Kadhai with Kalai Lining

Name: Hand Hammered Brass Kadhai with Kalai Lining
Brand: PEETAL PARAMPARA
SKU: PP-BR-DIN-KAD-010
Price: 4099.0 INR
Availability: InStock

A hammered brass kadhai with a tin lined interior and two thick cast ring handles.

Rs. 4,099.00

Price includes GST.

Weight: 1,400g

Material: Brass, unlacquered outside
Finish: Hand hammered, polished
Lining: Tin lined inside (kalai)
Handle: Two thick cast ring handles, riveted twice each
In the box: 1 brass kadhai

Check delivery to your PIN code

Estimated, not a guarantee. Dispatched from Guwahati, Monday to Saturday.

Each piece is shaped and finished by hand, so small differences in weight, size, finish and surface marking are normal and no two are identical. Colour on screen can differ from the metal in daylight. Handmade in India.

The lining stops at the rim. Outside, the metal is bright hammered brass. Inside, it turns a soft grey where the tin has been wiped on and left with the hammer marks showing through it. Two rivets hold each handle and they read as small brass dots on the inner wall just under the lip. The handles themselves are thick closed rings, cast heavy enough that they do not flex when the pan is full.

Technique

Hand Hammered
Tin Lined

What is it?

A kadhai is the deep round-bottomed pan used for Indian frying, and kalai is the tin skin wiped over the inside of a brass one so the cooking surface is tin rather than brass.

Also known as a kalai kadai, karahi, peetal kadhai, brass wok or kalaiwala kadhai.

What is in the box?

1 brass kadhai

How do I look after it?

The silver lining inside is kalai — a thin coat of tin, applied by hand over heat by a tinsmith called a kalaiwala. Brass reacts with sour food; the kalai is the barrier between the two.
Kalai is not permanent. With regular cooking it wears through in roughly 12 to 15 months — sooner on a high flame, later on a vessel used only for storage or ghee. When brass starts showing through the silver, it is time to have it redone. The vessel itself will outlast you; the coating is a service item, like re-soling a shoe.
Getting it redone: any local kalaiwala can do it, usually for a small charge, usually the same day.
Cook on a low to medium flame. High heat is what strips kalai fastest.
Use wooden or silicone tools. Steel spatulas scratch tin.
Wash by hand with mild soap and a soft sponge, and dry immediately. Never scour the inside.
Clean the outside brass with lemon and salt or tamarind. Keep abrasives off the tinned inside.

How was it made?

Hand Hammered
Tin Lined

Handmade in India

Every piece finished by hand

Solid metal

No plating, nothing to chip

Weighed and listed

In grams, on almost every page

Tin lining stated

Where a vessel is lined, we say so

Questions about this piece

Is this brass solid or plated?

Solid. The grey inside is a tin wipe over brass, not a plating over base metal, and the 1,400 g on the scale is the part of the argument you can check at home.

Will it look exactly like the photograph?

No two come out the same. The hammering is struck by hand, so the pattern of the marks, the width of the plain bands and the depth of the polish all shift a little from one to the next.

Is it tin lined?

Yes. The inside carries a kalai coat, which is why it reads grey against the gold outside. Tin is soft and wears thin under scraping and long heat, so it gets re-tinned every year or two by a kalaiwala.

Can I keep curd, lemon or pickle in it?

Cook them in it, do not store them in it. The tin holds up to a sour gravy on the flame, but pickle or curd left sitting overnight works at the coat and at the brass under it.

Can I put it in the dishwasher?

Hand wash only. Dishwasher heat and salts take tin off faster than anything else in a kitchen. Warm water, a soft sponge, no steel scrubber, and dry it before it is put away.

How do I know when the kalai has worn?

The grey goes patchy and brass starts showing through at the base and on the curve of the wall, which is where a ladle rubs hardest. That is when to have it re-tinned.