Cooking with a tagine - do you need a heat diffuser? Why?

My wife ordered a tagine to cook with. Now she is hearing that she will need a heat diffuser to go with it. What does the diffuser do? Is it possible to skip it, or rig something up for cheap that will work just as well without spending the $s?



She would be cooking on a glass top electric range.Cooking with a tagine - do you need a heat diffuser? Why?
If the tagine has a cast iron base, no problem.

If the bottom is ceramic it needs a diffuser.

However a glass top electric should be OK if the base of the tagine is totally flat and sits squarely on the stove with few gaps or spaces between the two that would lead to uneven heating and cracking.. The only problem would be the ceramic scratching the surface of the stove top.

I have a cast base one I use for sugar smoking food.



RScott

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