The Forgotten Art of Dum Cooking

The word "dum" comes from the Persian دم (breath). Slow-cooking a sealed pot creates an internal steam chamber where spices, proteins and starches exchange flavours across hours. It is perhaps the oldest form of pressure cooking — but unhurried, gentle, and impossible to replicate with a modern appliance.

At Spice & Story, every biryani is dum-cooked in a hand-thrown terracotta handi sealed with dough. The breaking of that seal — tableside — releases a cloud of saffron-perfumed steam that is itself part of the experience.