Peka: Why cooking under the iron bell cannot be rushed

There is no thermostat under a peka: everything depends on the embers, the mass of the meat, and how many times someone lifted the bell. How does a peka work, where does it come from, and why must it be ordered in advance?

Peka is a cooking apparatus: an iron or ceramic bell placed over food on an open hearth and covered with embers. What happens beneath it has little to do with oven roasting, so a dish under the peka can neither be rushed nor replaced by an oven.

An ancient tool with many names

The Croatian Encyclopedia describes the pekva as a bell-shaped ceramic or iron vessel for cooking on an open hearth, with one or two handles on top. Ceramic pekve were made by local potters: on the Adriatic and in the Dinaric regions on a manual potter's wheel, under the names čripnja, peka, or pekva, and in Slavonia using a mold, under the name pokljuka. Iron pekve spread to the Balkans via the Ottomans under the name sač, and in Croatia, the iron bell is also commonly called a peka. The iron bell is a smooth dome, while ceramic ones have added hoops to hold the embers.

The device is ancient: in southern Pannonia and the Balkans, the pekva was used as early as the Neolithic. With the disappearance of open hearths, it mostly vanished from village homes, only to return to restaurants offering traditional dishes.

How the bell works

The bell is massive and heats up from the embers lying on top of it, so it radiates heat downwards, while the hearth, previously heated by fire, provides heat from below.

Inside, a closed space saturated with moisture from the meat and vegetables is created. This moisture cannot escape, so the food is simultaneously roasted and braised in its own juices. The result is meat with a crust that hasn't dried out—a combination harder to achieve in an oven where moisture is lost more easily.

Lift the bell as rarely as possible

Every lifting of the bell releases accumulated steam and heat, and the embers must be removed from the bell and put back afterward. When the bell is lifted, it is usually only once or twice: to turn the potatoes, add a little liquid, or move the meat on top of the potatoes. Then the bell is returned and covered again with fresh embers.

Everything else is done by feel—by smell, by sound, and by how much ember remains. There is no thermometer or alarm, so peka is not a dish for a beginner to handle.

How long it takes

Timing depends on the ingredients, weight, and embers, so it varies from house to house. A rough guide looks like this:

\n
• Lamb — longest, usually two hours or more, depending on the size of the pieces
\n
• Veal — similar to lamb, depending on the cut
\n
• Octopus — shorter, roughly an hour to an hour and a half. It usually doesn't need much liquid because it releases its own juices under the bell
\n
• Bread — shortest; baked under the same device
\n

Potatoes almost always accompany the meat, and they aren't just a side dish: they absorb the fat and juices released by the meat, so the sauce creates itself.

Why it is ordered in advance

A restaurant offering peka must light the fire hours before the meal needs to be ready: first, the hearth and bell are heated, then they wait for the wood to burn down to embers, and only then does the cooking begin. They also need to know how many people are coming, because the quantity under the bell cannot be changed halfway through.

This is why peka is ordered in advance almost everywhere (in some places a few hours, in others a day or more earlier) and is offered for a specific number of people. If peka is on the menu without any note about pre-ordering, it is worth asking how it is being prepared.

Wood and embers

Hard deciduous wood is used for peka—hornbeam, beech, oak, and on the coast, olive wood and grapevines. Conifers are avoided due to resin. Without a bell, directly on a glowing hearth, under embers and ash, Poljički soparnik is baked.

More important than the type of wood is the stage of the fire: peka requires embers, not flames. The fire is lit much earlier, allowed to burn down, and only then are the embers spread around and over the bell. A flame would overheat the bell from the top, and the food would burn before it was cooked through.

What to serve with it

Very little is served with peka: bread and a simple salad. The sauce created under the bell is the main accompaniment and needs no competition.

Structured red wine goes well with lamb and veal, while a full-bodied white suits octopus. Lists of producers can be found in the guides to Dalmatian wineries and Istria.

Where to eat it

Peka is most commonly found in konobas outside city centers, as it requires an open hearth and space. It is rarer in urban restaurants.

Addresses by location are available in the guides for Split, Zadar, Pula, and Dubrovnik. If you want an octopus version at home, the oven is only an approximate substitute—octopus with potatoes from the oven works on a similar logic, just without the bell.

Cover photo: iron peka on a hearth, surrounded by embers. Photo: MatSkvorc, license CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons, cropped.