Cooking Pot

The patila is the tall, bucket-shaped pot found in every Pakistani kitchen for boiling — rice, pasta, potatoes, and the nihari bone broth that must simmer undisturbed for hours all use the patila's depth to their advantage. Its tall narrow profile reduces evaporation during long simmers. In large-scale Pakistani cooking for events (dawat), giant stainless steel patilas are used to boil meat in yakhni (stock) before final curry assembly. The word is often used interchangeably with degchi in casual speech.