Kolukhoo

Raviz, Rafsanjan, and the fields of the central plateau

Illustration

Researched: Researched from 49 sources in the brief

Kolukhoo is a field oven built from the field. After ploughing, farmers stack the dry clods of turned earth, kolukh, into a small dome, light a wood fire inside it until the clods glow red, rake the fire out, drop potatoes in, collapse the hot clods over them and wait. The Kerman heritage office lists the cooking of kolukhoo among the foodways of Raviz, in Rafsanjan county. The descriptions come from the next provinces along. The deputy governor of Bafq, in Yazd province, told IRIB News in 2018 that farmers did it in their own fields for pleasure and for food, and that in the past potatoes were cooked this way for lack of oil.

The measurements are from Zavareh, in Isfahan province, where it is called kolukh chin: the heritage activist Mohsen Hadi Tahan Zavare'i told ISNA in 2025 that the dome is about 70 centimetres across, fired about half an hour, and the food left an hour or more, especially in autumn. He says mud brick will not do, only natural clods, and that turnip, beetroot and foil-wrapped meat go in too. The two sources disagree on the wind: Bafq turns the mouth towards it, Zavareh away from it.

As tradition built it

For the people in the field after ploughing.

Ingredients

Kolukhoo is cooked by cue: the clods are ready when they glow red, and no source counts the potatoes.

as available potatoes, or turnip and beetroot
as available dry clods from a ploughed field, not mud brick
as available firewood

Method

Stack the dry clods into a small dome about 70cm across, with a mouth at the base and a hatch at the top.
Light the firewood inside and keep it burning until the clods glow red, about half an hour.
Rake out the fire and the embers and close the mouth with a clod.
Drop the potatoes in through the hatch.
Collapse the hot clods over them with a spade so they are wholly covered, beat them down a little and throw a little earth on top.
Wait an hour or more, then dig them out.

Notes

No source reached describes kolukhoo in Raviz itself.

What a modern chef changes

The clod dome in a kamado, and the potato salted in its skin

Rung 4

Method

Use the Big Green Egg as the clods. Fire it hard with lump charcoal until the ceramic is hot through, rake the coals to the sides, and bury the potatoes in the bed of hot ash and embers at the centre. The ceramic holds heat as the clods do. Rung 4: the fire does the flavour work.
Wet the potato skins and roll them in coarse salt before they go in, so the skin dries to a salted crust.
Close the vents and leave it an hour, as the field oven is left, and test with a skewer, not the clock.
Do it in an autumn field if you have one. Clods that have dried after ploughing are the oven; the method needs nothing else.

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