[Spit-Project] Seasoning unglazed cookware

[Michael Gunter]

>My latest project is attempting to use a "grapen" which is an unglazed,
>sort of fatbellied ceramic pot on three legs, about 1 quart capacity.

Nice. I've been hoping to get one of those. I have a pipkin which is similar
but smaller, made by Mistress Gwyneth, which I love.
Some larger capacity ceramic cookware is definately in my future.

>Does anyone know how to use such cookware, especially seasoning it and
>then of course placing it/on/near the fire?

The number one rule to remember with pottery is slow even heat.
Do not rapidly heat or cool but instead slowly build or reduce heat.
Ceramic pots can get very hot as demonstrated by the rolling boil
the pot containing the lentils at the Cook's potluck achieved. You
can easily panfry meats and vegetables in oil in a pottery skillet.

They are best when used directly over coals, avoid fire if possible.
I've heard putting pottery on grills or trivets can cause cracking but
I've also seen vessels cooking over open fire on grills with no problems
at all. Just be careful.

As far as seasoning, well I've heard that cooking a couple pots of
pottage or oatmeal is a great way to season clay pots. Basically the
gunk you can't scrub out fills the uneven surface structure and makes
a smooth almost plastic area. You could take a bit of oil and rub around
the interior and heat gently over a fire or in an oven the same as you
do for cast iron.

Or you can just not worry about it. I haven't had any problems with
sticking on a properly glazed piece of pottery.

If you are using a grapen then you will probably be using it for
liquidy dishes such as pottages and stews and such. Considering that
you will be using even heat and frequent stirring you shouldn't
have too much of a problem with sticking anyway.

If you really worry about it and don't want to risk breaking your expensive
Historic Enterprises pride and joy, you can get some fairly inexpensive
cooking crockery at a decent Oriental Market and play on that as well.

>Miriam

I hope this helps.

Yers,

Gunthar

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