French Tian

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A tian is a tall, conical earthenware cooking vessel used in the Alpes-Maritimes area of France. Today, most of these vessels are produced in the town of Mougins. It is traditionally made from red clay and can be either glazed or unglazed. A modern tian can come lidded or not and sometimes has a looped handle on one side.

The vessel is used to cook a traditional braised vegetable stew also called tian. The unglazed vessels, filled with root and winter vegetables along with wine or rinds of cheese, were placed in the hot ashes of a fire and left to stew all day in gentle heat, somewhat like a Dutch oven. The looped handle was left sticking out of the ashes for easy removal once the dish was done.

Today, the modern version of vegetable tian is not a stew, but a freeform composite of roasted vegetables baked in a shallow dish with cheese to form a casserole.