SOURDOUGH TABOUNA
Traditional clay Tabouna ovens have been a central feature of bread baking in the SWANA region for millennia and in Tunisia methods of crafting and using these ovens represent particular cultural innovations. In Hay Hlel, bordering the Sejoumi wetlands, several craftswomen continue the neighborhood’s 60+ year tradition of making Tabouna ovens and Kanouns out of a special mixture of clay reinforced with brick powder (which is made by trucks rolling back and forth over the bricks just in front of the studios).
As clay Tabouna ovens become more and more rare in urban spaces, replaced by metal ones powered by gas, we became interested in researching the various methods of building, using, and maintaining these ovens as well as playing around with their portability. Interested in the health benefits of sourdough fermentation and regarding the fact that sourdough bread is practically absent from the market in Tunisia, and to a large part no longer prepared in the domestic space, we were curious to experiment baking sourdough bread in the Tabouna oven. Thanks to farmer and collaborator Zied Ben Madhi, we were able to obtain Mahmoudi flour (a variety of durum wheat derived from indigenous Tunisian seeds) with which we began trying a number of different Tabouna bread recipes, mostly containing nigella and fennel seeds.
For an event put on by Les Grandes Tables in the context of the Forum des Mondes Méditerranéens 2022, we sent one Tabouna oven, crafted by Latifa Cherif in Hay Hlel, to Marseille, where we added an exterior layer of clay and hay to the oven and baked sourdough Tabouna bread for over 200 people. This oven, crafted by Latifa, was acquired by Marseille’s Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations (MUCEM) and is now included in one of their permanent exhibitions.
Initiated with the financial support of Goethe-Institut Tunesien