Attractiveness of Nambu Tekki (Ironware)
Nambu ironware (Nambu Tekki), which has been loved for a long time, was designated as a national traditional craft in 1975.
In addition to iron kettles, they also produce frying pans, pots, and other products that match modern life while preserving traditions.
At present, Nambu ironware products are often found not only in Japan, but also overseas by exhibiting at overseas trade fairs and exporting.
So, what’s the appeal of Nambu ironware?
Best for preventing anemia
The cause of anemia is iron which is said to be lacking in modern people.
It’s said that Japanese generally require 10 mg of iron per day for adult men and 12 mg for adult women. Women must take more than men, but women need 15～20 mg of iron during pregnancy.
Of course, it’s best to take iron from food, but Nambu Ironware helps you to take iron more easily.
When you cook with Nambu ironware, iron gradually dissolves and transfers to ingredients and water, and you can easily replenish iron by eating and drinking it.
Most of the eluted iron (80～95%) is easily absorbed by the human body. This is called ferrous iron. There’re two types of iron, ferrous iron and ferric iron. When iron is absorbed into the human body, it’s absorbed as ferrous iron.
In other words, it’s absorbed quickly without going through the stage of digestion. The results show that continuous use of Nambu ironware is effective in preventing anemia.
The amount of iron eluted from Nambu ironware varies depending on the seasoning used for cooking. It has been demonstrated that more iron dissolves when sour seasonings are used.
Also, the amount of iron eluted increases as the cooking time, for example, the time to boil the water or the boiling time, increases.
Maintain warmth
Iron does not easily release heat once it has accumulated. It has been proven that it takes 1.5 times as long to cool as an aluminum pan.
It also has better thermal conductivity than stainless steel, so it boils faster from the start of heating to boiling, rather than boiling water in a stainless steel kettle.
Nambu ironware gives heat to ingredients without big difference from the beginning to the end, so the food is also delicious. Furthermore, the fact that it takes time to cool down makes it perfect for simmered dishes where ingredients absorb umami when it cools down.
The cooking utensil of Nambu ironware is made much heavier than the cooking utensil of advanced lightening. But stability and weight are two sides of the same coin. As it is made heavy, the Nambu ironware is less deformed by heat and the weight of the equipment itself makes it possible to cook stably.
And it retains a lot of heat, so the temperature of the pot itself doesn’t drop easily even if you add the ingredients, and there’s little need to shake the frying pan to evaporate the water in the stir-fry.
So, even though Nambu ironware is heavy, it hardly becomes a disadvantage when cooking.
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Hard to burn
Nambu Ironware is manufactured by pouring molten iron into a mold and letting it cool to harden. However, when craftsmen pour molten iron into a mold, if they use a mold made of iron or aluminum, the mold itself will melt at the temperature of the poured iron, so they use a special mold made of sand.
At that time, the eyes of the sand mold are photographed, and the surface of the ironware has very fine unevenness. The oil soaks in and the heated air gets in to prevent burning.
By using Nambu ironware, oil spreads all over and the surface becomes black and glossy. This is the reason why this black shiny surface does not burn easily. Please do not use detergent for cleaning after use so as not to remove oil that has been absorbed for a long time.
For maintenance, use a scrubbing brush made of material that is hard to damage the ironware, and rinse it with hot water. If it burns, soak it in hot water for 10 to 15 minutes and it will come off easily.
Nambu ironware is durable and can be used for more than 3 generations with proper care. It has a surprisingly long life, unlike cooking utensils with Teflon coating.
Japanese online shopping site amazon.co.jp has a lot of Nambu ironware products and can ship overseas.
Please refer to the customer reviews for each product as you can see the comments of Japanese people who are strict about quality.
However, there’re problems such as the products that have not been shipped from Japan to your country, and the overseas shipping cost and overhead costs will increase even if you can ship them. (For example, amazon.co.jp cannot ship all products to Australia.)
You can use Overseas Forwarding Services to solve this problem. This is a very useful service that will make your online shopping more global!
Please experience Nambu ironware, which never loses its popularity due to its practicality even if times change.
