Tava facts for kids

A round cooking pan called a tava

A tava (also called tawa), saj, or sac is a special metal cooking pan. It's round and can be flat, but usually it has a curved shape. You can use the inside (curved in) like a wok or frying pan. The outside (curved out) is perfect for cooking flatbreads and pancakes.

In India, tawas might have a handle or not. They can be made from cast iron, aluminium, or carbon steel. Some tawas are coated with enamel or a non-stick surface so food doesn't stick. Tawas and sajs are used in cooking across South, Central, and West Asia, as well as in the Caucasus region and the Balkans. You can also find tawas in Indo-Caribbean cooking.

What Are Tawas Called?

People in different places have different names for this cooking pan.

Tava, Tawa, and Taaba

In Iran, it's called tāve. This word comes from an old Persian word, taaba, which means something curved. It's also related to tawaa, a word used in many Indian languages like Punjabi, Hindi, and Urdu for a cooking pan. In Afghanistan, the curved pan for bread is called tawah, or more commonly tabakhey in Pashto. The word tapa in Georgian is also similar.

Saj and Sac

Saj is the Arabic word for this pan. In Turkey, it's called saç or sac. These names are used in Southwest Asia. In Iran, saj refers to the curved iron plate used for baking bread.

Other Meanings

The word tava is also used in Turkey and the Balkans. There, it can mean any kind of frying pan. However, in Serbia and Bulgaria, a тава (tava) is a metal baking tray with raised edges.

The sač is a special lid shaped like a saj. It's used for cooking in the Balkans. In Serbia and Bulgaria, a flat ceramic сач (sach) is used to cook thin slices of vegetables and meat right at the table.

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  Pita bread cooking on a curved saj

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  An Azerbaijani sac that can be used on both sides

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  Markouk bread baking on a curved saj

How Are Tawas Used?

Tawas and sajs are used to bake many different kinds of flatbreads and pancakes. These include pita, naan, saj bread, roti, chapati, paratha, dosa, and pesarattu. In Pakistan, especially in villages, large curved saj pans are used to cook several breads at once or to make very thin rumali roti.

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  A Palestinian woman baking markook on a saj

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  A roti bread cooking on a tava

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  Gözleme, a filled bread, cooking on a sac

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  A woman preparing qurasah bread on Sherari Island in Dar al-Manasir in Northern Sudan

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  Vegetables being fried in a tava

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  Aloo chaat (a snack) being cooked in a large tava

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  Fish frying in a tava

See also

In Spanish: Tava para niños