Many times I have heard how people are searching for a healthy and enjoyable way of cooking.. This is what preparing the food in clay pots was for me for the last several years.
To make clay pots functional, they sometimes need a few additional steps in maintenance which helps them provide you the best results. One of the frequent questions that come around this topic is the soaking of clay cookware. Why soaking is required sometimes, do all of the clay pots need to be treated this way and do you need to soak clay pots every time before cooking?
As a general rule, only some bare clay pots need to be soaked before every cooking, while glazed ones don’t. A highly porous bare clay pot generally needs to be soaked before each cooking process while a semi-porous don’t. Manufacturers commonly highlight this requirement on their products.
In this post, I gathered information about soaking requirements provided by different clay pot manufacturers as well as from my personal experience.
After reading the article, you will better understand which clay pots need to be soaked, how often it needs to be done, and how your cooking can benefit from the soaking of your clay pots.
1.Do you need to soak the clay pots before cooking?
Soaking of non-glazed clay pots once before the initial seasoning can be found in the guidelines of most manufacturers. Additionally, If you want to learn more about how to prepare your clay pot before the first use, take a look at this step-by-step video tutorial on how to go through this for the first time.
Glazed clay pots, on the other hand, don’t require initial seasoning or soaking, However, they lack some of the properties that pure ceramic cookware can provide. Hear more about clay pot benefits(and some drawbacks) in my in-depth post here. There you will see experiments that I performed to prove/Denie common beliefs behind clay pot cooking benefits.
Apart from soaking during initial seasoning, some clay pots need a short soaking process before each cooking. As mentioned, this is usually noticed by the manufacturer. One of the examples of this is Romertopf clay pot cookware designed for roasting. According to their official manual, they recommend
,, Moisten your RÖMERTOPF® before every use. If you have very little time, it is sufficient to hold the lid under warm water for about 30 seconds. Its pores will store sufficient water in this time. However, ideally, the RÖMERTOPF® should be placed in a basin of water for about 15 minutes before use.”
In general, manufacturers that recommend the soaking process before every use, usually consider that a few minutes can be sufficient for increasing the moisture retention properties of their clay pots. Such practice is commonly associated with fully porous clay material.
However, some brands use specific raw clay material and finishing techniques for producing cookware that doesn’t need soaking before every use. An example of this can be Miriam Earthen Cookware.
Now let’s go more into detail on why do you need to soak certain clay pots while others not.
2.Why do you need to soak some clay pots?
In general, clay pots are porous, which triggers the high liquid absorption properties of this material. The walls of the vessels soaked with water before cooking lead to better retention of juices inside of cookware. In addition, the increased water content in the walls increases the heat retention properties of this material.
But why do some clay pots need st be soaked shortly before each cooking while others don’t?
The answer lies in the porosity level of the clay pots. If the material is characterized by high porosity, the benefits of the soaking are expressed. Ont he other words, soaking the highly porous clay pots can importantly contribute to the moisture circulation and heat retention of the vessel.
Finally, I have asked Romertopf direcly about why they clay pot roasters need to be soaked before every use. The answer was:
,, The roasters are made of open-pored clay and absorb moisture when watered.This is then converted into vapor when heated, there is a vapor cooking effect in the roaster and the food becomes very juicy.”
Just to make a little notice here: the body of the Romertopf clay pot roasters is glazed from the inner side so it doesn’t require soaking. On the other hand, lids are non-glazed so they benefit from the soaking practice.
Finally, I asked Miriams Earthen Cookware to explain why there is no need for soaking their cookware before each use, and the answer was the following:
,, Because of the unique way we hand finish our pots using pure clay, the walls are packaged tightly and finished to a semi-porous state. This allows for the pot to retain moisture better. With the other clay pots, they are very porous and therefore require soaking so that the food inside does not dry out too much”.
3. Conclusions
Soaking of the clay cookware allows better moisture circulation within the vessel and it contributes to its heat retention properties. Depending on the level of porosity, the effect of soaking can be more or less significant.
While highly porous clay vessels require a short soaking before each use, while semi-porous ones could be soaked only once while preparing them for first-time use.
Even though clay pots require some small preparation steps they are having a lot of flexibility for use, unlike the common beliefs. For instance, they can be used on most stovetops even if they are frequently related to ovens or cooking on a fire. Moreover, I have written down a practical article about using clay pots on stovetops which you can take a look at.
Finally, if you are still in the search for the right clay pot to buy you can read my article where I present a few internationally available clay pot brands, and what to consider before buying from them.
In addition, for you who are lucky to have access to locally produced clay pots I share some steps on how I search for clay pots in local craftsman production.
