FermenteaWhere food goes to change
Equipment · Jars, pots and crocks
මී කිරි මැටි හට්ටි · kiri haTi · hatti
An open fired-clay pot holds Sri Lankan buffalo curd while it sets and travels to market. Sources document both hand-thrown and moulded forms.
The Sri Lankan curd pot is a fired-clay vessel used both to set buffalo-milk curd and to carry it to sale. A University of Moratuwa paper calls clay pots a traditional packaging for buffalo curd. In a reportage account from Pallemalala, Hambantota, cleaned hatti are arranged open, filled with boiled buffalo milk and starter, and left uncovered while the curd sets. After setting, each pot is covered with tissue paper for sale. The container is therefore part of the product's setting and retail form, not simply a storage jar.
The observed pots are reddish-brown, open-mouthed bowls with sloping sides and a rounded, narrowing lower body. The sources do not establish one standard profile for all makers or regions. The paper and ethnography distinguish clay vessels from plastic packaging, but the written study does not specify a universal clay body, glaze, or firing recipe.
In the Pallemalala account, buffalo milk is heated before it is poured into cleaned clay hatti. A spoonful of the previous day's curd, called muhun in the report, is added as starter; the vessels remain open so the milk can cool in the room's air while it sets. Once set, the curd stays in its pot for sale. This account documents one producer's practice and does not establish that every curd maker uses the same milk treatment or starter preparation.
The packaging study examined how re-firing used pots affected their physical and microbiological properties and the curd. It reports that repeated firing increased porosity; by the third firing, increased water loss was associated with a lower pH in the curd. Those are findings from that experiment, not a general recommendation to reuse or re-fire a food container. The source does not provide general cleaning, care, or safety directions for these pots.
Deborah Winslow's ethnography follows curd-pot production in Walangama. In 1981, a trader there began supplying a northern dairy farm after noticing curd pots arriving from the south coast. By 1992, potters were making these pots by hand alongside their regular ware. Walangama potters already made a similar shallow cooking vessel, the ätiliya, with a rounded bottom; that familiarity helped them learn quickly. This does not mean every curd pot began as an ätiliya.
The production method changed again. The first mould machine appeared in Walangama in the late 1990s, and Winslow reports that handmade curd pots later disappeared there. Her comparison of two roughly one-litre examples records a hand-thrown pot at 900 ml and 50 mm high, and a moulded pot at 950 ml and 55 mm high. Their bases were 5.8 mm and 6.5 mm thick respectively. The moulded sample had a flat base and mould ridge and used about 40 percent more clay for a similar capacity. These measurements distinguish the photographed examples; they are not a specification for all pots.
The record spans different moments and sites rather than one island-wide production story. The Pallemalala report records a working curd maker and buffalo-milk setting practice; Winslow's long ethnography traces how Walangama's producers moved from hand-thrown pots toward moulded manufacture. Her account places the earlier supply of pots in southern Sri Lanka and later production in a different region, showing that the container travelled with a growing curd market.
Neither the studies nor the reportage supplies a universal mouth diameter, clay recipe, firing schedule, modern supplier list, or general cleaning procedure. A curd pot should therefore be understood through the documented local forms and examples, not as one fixed traditional design.
The sources document both older hand-thrown and later moulded examples; one profile, wall thickness or manufacturing method does not describe every Sri Lankan curd pot.
Source →The Moratuwa re-firing experiment reports changed porosity and water loss after repeated firing; it does not establish a general safe reuse procedure.
Source →A reportage account records hatti curd-setting in Pallemalala, Hambantota; Winslow's production history centers on Walangama. These are examples, not evidence of one island-wide form.
An earthen fermentation pot documented in Ayurvedic asava and arishta preparations. Studies in India compare pot and non-earthen vessels; field research in Sri Lanka records both earlier buried pots and later, varied factory practice.
A column still is a distillation apparatus built around one or more vertical columns. Its continuous and rectifying designs appear in several spirits traditions, but materials and product character vary by installation.
Soft, spreadable Calabrian pork sausage made with a great deal of red chilli and fatty pork, stuffed into natural casings, sometimes smoked and matured while staying soft.
A way to add independent temperature logging to an existing food dehydrator without changing its built-in controls or protections. It is a monitoring method, not a rewiring plan.
Pleurotus cystidiosus is the abalone mushroom, a cultivated oyster-type fungus with dark brown caps that grows more slowly and is more demanding than other Pleurotus species.
A dark, balanced vinegar from Emilia-Romagna made by combining cooked or concentrated grape must with wine vinegar, then acetifying and refining it in wood under a protected specification.
A living dairy inoculum that starts controlled cream fermentation, developing acidity and aroma before sour cream or cultured butter is finished.
A small electric incubator holds jars at a selected temperature for yogurt and other documented warm food preparations. Controls, capacity and vessel arrangement vary by model.
Adygean salt is a seasoned table salt associated with Adygea and the wider North Caucasian culinary tradition. Salt is blended with garlic and a variable selection of herbs and spices; the exact mix depends on the named style and maker.
The African Caesar-group mushroom, Amanita masasiensis, is a wild ectomycorrhizal species of central and southern African woodlands, eaten locally. The genus contains deadly poisonous species, so identification needs care.
No community contributions have been published for this entry yet.
Sign in to contribute. Published comments and photos are free to read.
University of Moratuwa Digital RepositoryClay curd pot packaging · Experimental re firing and porosity
Reuse potential of clay pots for packaging of curdThe authors describe buffalo curd packed in clay pots as a traditional Sri Lankan dairy product and compare new pots with used pots re-fired one, two or three times.
The study reports increased porosity after repeated firing and excessive water loss with lower curd pH after the third firing; these are experimental results, not general cleaning or reuse instructions.
Cited in: A serving pot that also sets the curd; What the vessel does during setting
Interdisciplinaria Archaeologica – Natural Sciences in Archaeology (IANSA), XII/2 (2021), pp. 257–265Curd pot production history · Hand thrown and moulded form comparison · Documented measurements
Reinventing the Wheel: Perpetual Innovation in Sinhalese Potter AssemblagesWinslow reports that Walangama entered curd-pot production in 1981; the ethnography describes hand-thrown pots in 1992 and mould-machine production from the late 1990s, with handmade curd pots later disappearing there.
The article compares an approximately one-litre hand-thrown pot (measured 900 ml; 50 mm high; 5.8 mm base) with an approximately one-litre moulded pot (measured 950 ml; 55 mm high; 6.5 mm base); the moulded sample used about 40 percent more clay for a similar volume.
The article says the two samples differ in form and production traces: the moulded example has thicker walls and bottom, a flat base and a mould ridge; hand-thrown examples were finished with paddle-and-anvil.
Cited in: A serving pot that also sets the curd; Hand-shaped and moulded pots; Places and limits of the record
Explore Sri LankaDocumented setting and sale use · Pallemalala process and image
The Making Of Creamy And Delicious Mee KiriThe report describes boiled buffalo milk poured into cleaned clay hatti in Pallemalala, Hambantota, with the vessels left open while the curd sets and covered with tissue paper after setting for sale.
Its caption identifies a photograph of boiled mee kiri being poured into a clay hatti; the article credits Menaka Aravinda and Indika de Silva as photographers.
Cited in: A serving pot that also sets the curd; What the vessel does during setting; Places and limits of the record