- Beef (traditionally), garlic, cumin and preserved lemon
- A clay tanjia urn, sealed with paper and string
- Hammam furnace ashes (restaurants use slow ovens)
Tanjia
Sealed tanjia urns in a Marrakech souk, waiting for the hammam ashes. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
Tanjia is Marrakech's own dish: beef (or lamb) sealed in a clay urn with garlic, cumin and preserved lemon, then buried in the ashes of a hammam furnace for six to eight hours. It was the bachelors' dish: men would drop their urns at the hammam in the morning and collect dinner in the evening.
Unlike tagine, there are no vegetables to speak of and no stirring: the sealed urn does everything. The result is spoon-tender beef in a concentrated, garlicky sauce.
Key ingredients
Where to try it
- Marrakech only, properly: the restaurants around the medina.
- The Mechoui Alley area has the classic tanjia grills.
- Order ahead: a real tanjia takes most of the day.