Clay Cooker Recipes and Information

Home Cooking

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Home Cooking

Clay Cookers (Claypot)

Part 1: Beware lead poisoning from clay cookers

More of this Feature

• Part 1: Avoid leaded clay-pots
• Part 2: Clay-pot tips and Hints
• Part 3: Clay-pot cleaning and Storage
• Part 4: Clay Cooker Recipes

Related Resources

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Recipes

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• Clay-Pot Orange Chicken
• Shrimp & Italian Sausage Risotto
• Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic
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Related Cookbooks

• Cooking in Clay
• Clay Pot Cookbook
• Best of Clay Pot Cooking
• Good Health Low-Fat Low-Sodium Clay Pot Cookbook
• Claypot Cooking : The Perfect Way to Cook Almost Anything
• More Cookbooks

The clay cooker is a wonderful addition to your kitchen for making one-pot meals. They are a real time-saver, with the added bonus of very flavorful and tender results due to the cooking process. Better yet, it's great for those on a fat-conscious diet, since you can cook foods without fat, yet still get all that wonderful flavor. It's energy-efficient because you begin with a cold oven and usually cook the whole meal in one pot. Read on to learn about clay-pots, and don't miss the clay cooker recipes.

What is a clay-pot or clay cooker?
clay cooker graphic Clay cookers are pretty much self-explanatory. They are cooking vessels made of unglazed clay, usually large oval roasters with a lid. These are not to be confused with terra cotta baking pots that have a glazed interior and unglazed exterior. It's important to use an unglazed clay cooker to avoid any potential problems of lead in the pot which can leach into the food and cause serious health problems. Normally this is not a problem in unglazed pottery such as clay cookers. Clay cookers are soaked in water first. As the pot heats in the oven, the water evaporates causing a pressure-steaming effect to cook the food.

Clay-pot reparation and usage
You really don't need much preparation. The main thing to remember is to completely submerse both the top and bottom of the clay cooker in water for at least 15 minutes before loading the ingredients. This is easily accomplished by filling your sink with water and soaking top and bottom while you prepare the ingredients. Once loaded, place the covered claypot into the center of a cold oven; do not preheat. It is necessary to the cooking process to gradually bring the pot up to the desired temperature. If you put a cold clay-pot into a hot oven, you also risk cracking the pot due to extreme temperature change. Most clay cooker recipes call for a temperature of 400 to 480 degrees F. Larger pots will take longer to cook, of course, but many dishes will be done within an hour. Some recipes will require you to remove the top near the end to achieve a browning or crisping effect.

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