[Sca-cooks] First cooking on my own pottery was successful

[Dragon]

So I decided to literally put my pot and skillet that I made to the 
test this evening. Because after all the intent of the project is to 
cook with it.

In some discussions with the folks at Free Form Clay here in San 
Diego, they had recommended using a clay with a lot of sand or "grog" 
in it to provide some more porosity in the clay. The clay I had used 
has some but it is fairly fine grained so I did decide to take it 
slow to begin with.

I baked some pork shoulder in the skillet in my convection oven for 
about an hour at 325F, that was fine and the skillet cleaned up 
perfectly after using it. No cracks, everything looks great. I 
figured that was a good first test as it is relatively gentle heat.

Right now I have the pot bubbling away with a batch of freekeh (green 
wheat) and mushrooms over a direct, medium-low flame on the stove. No 
problems there either.

I'm pretty confident now about using them over charcoal for sure and 
medium to low direct flame. I do intend to see just what they can 
take over time but I am starting slowly to give them a chance to 
relieve any internal stress over several thermal cycles. Granted, 
they were fired to cone 5 which is about 1500F, but that doesn't mean 
they are immune to thermal shock.

I'm quite pleased so far and look forward to figuring out just how I 
can use them over time. I'm also planning to use a different clay 
soon to make more items that has a much higher proportion of sand in 
it to see if it might be more durable. I'll be making a couple of 
test pieces I can heat to destruction to see just what they might be 
able to take.



Dragon

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  Venimus, Saltavimus, Bibimus (et naribus canium capti sumus)
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