[Sca-cooks] Salt corrosion of pots?

[Galefridus Peregrinus]

But why would whether the pot was glazed or not have anything to do with it? Glazed or not, earthenware is basically fused silica, which is, as I said, pretty much inert. What is the salt eating into that's making the fired clay crumbly? I'm enough of a chemist to know that SOMETHING odd is going on.

-- Galefridus

> Message: 5
> Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2013 13:14:01 -0500
> From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
> To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
> Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Salt corrosion of pots?
> Message-ID: <8AE2DA53-67EC-480F-BD0E-2984FAB1C340 at mac.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; CHARSET=US-ASCII
> 
> I think the problem is that your pot was unglazed. 
> 
> Johnnae
> 
> Sent from my iPad
> 
> On Jan 12, 2013, at 8:44 PM, Galefridus Peregrinus <galefridus at optimum.net> wrote:
> 
>> I have a couple of Pomaireware unglazed clay pots (http://pomaireware.com/clay-cookware/) that I use with some regularity. Most recently I used one to brine cure a few pounds of olives. Over the course of the cure (about 3 months), the brine solution soaked through the pot; in fact, the outside of the pot became encrusted with salt as the brine dried.
>> 
>> A couple of days ago, I transferred the olives to another container. As I was cleaning the pot, I noticed several places where the clay had corroded: it had become soft and crumbly. I didn't think that fired clay pots would be affected by salt in this way. I'm no ceramicist, but isn't fired clay just fused silica, which is extremely inert?
>> 
>> I'd be interested in hearing whether anyone else has had this problem.
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 6
> Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2013 14:07:58 -0500 (EST)
> From: JIMCHEVAL at aol.com
> To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
> Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Salt corrosion of pots?
> Message-ID: <2d9d.4ee9d664.3e24600e at aol.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
> 
> Indeed. "Inert" does not mean "not porous".
> 
> "One  important use of glaze is to render porous pottery vessels 
> impermeable to water  and other liquids."
> _http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pottery#Decorating_and_glazing_ 
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pottery#Decorating_and_glazing) 
> 
> Jim  Chevallier
> www.chezjim.com
> 
> Newly translated from Pierre Jean-Baptiste  Le Grand d'Aussy:
> Eggs, Cheese and Butter in Old Regime France  
> 
> 
> In a message dated 1/13/2013 10:14:13 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
> johnnae at mac.com writes:
> 
> I think  the problem is that your pot was unglazed. 
> 
> 
> 
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> End of Sca-cooks Digest, Vol 81, Issue 14
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