Clay Pot Cooking

Clay-pot cooking goes back to the ancient Etruscans and perhaps, even further. It is believed that as soon as man mastered fire, he began to cook in earthen pots. Both glazed and unglazed pots are used today, but there are differences in the performance of each.


Unglazed cookers are sometimes termed “wet” pots, and glazed, “dry”. The Etruscan wet-pot is thought to produce unique results because of the steam which is generated after soaking the pot for at least 15 minutes prior to cooking. The filled and “watered” pot is then put into a cold oven and the contents cooked at a very high temperature of 450 to 480 degrees F. About 10 minutes before the end of cooking time, you can remove the pot from the oven and pour the liquid into a pan for making the sauce. For additional browning or “crisping” of meat or fowl, you then replace the pot in the oven with the top off for the final 10 minutes of cooking thus eliminating the need for using another container (skillet) to brown.

Glazed or “dry” pots also produce delicious results. Pampered Chef (the home party kitchen stuff company) makes a great variety of cookware they call “stoneware”—an unglazed substance that has unique cooking qualities. Because it is fired at a much higher temperature it is not usually necessary to submerge it in water before cooking. However, I have a lot of Pampered Chef stoneware (I used to work for this company) and I tried wetting it first and liked the results. Since it is not glazed, it does absorb some of the water and that makes steam. This works especially well for baking bread in the stoneware.

We have been enamored with the crock pot (slow cooker) for some time now, and have almost forgotten the clay-pot cooker, but it’s time to take one out (or purchase one) and give it a try. It doesn’t cook all day, thus allowing you to come home to the dinner—but the results are a nice change from the sameness of crock pot dinners. Since you start the clay cooker in a cold oven, it would be a perfect use for the delay-start feature of a conventional oven.

So what’s so great about clay cooking? Because it is self-basting it produces its own natural sauce; additionally, you can cook without fat while preserving all the food value and flavor. And speaking of flavor, “Clay makes it taste better,” says Paula Wolfert in her new cookbook, Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking, reviewed by the October Bon Appetit. Because it delivers a steady heat, vegetables caramelize and tough cuts of meat turn meltingly tender.

I have a much older cookbook called The Clay-Pot Cookbook by Georgia and Grover Sales which has a plethora of delicious sounding recipes to try. I found a bargain in whole chickens at the store and decided to try one of them on the beautiful 6-pounder I purchased. We enjoyed a sumptuous meal, using both a large stoneware casserole with a domed lid and a smaller version of the same pot for sweet potatoes. The chicken and the sweet potatoes were superb—I encourage you to give this a try.

Orange Chicken

1 5 or 6 pound whole chicken
Salt
Pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium oranges, peeled and sliced (reserve the rinds)
½ cup orange juice
¼ cup soy sauce
1 tsp. grated fresh ginger root
½ tsp. allspice, ground
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
Arrowroot or cornstarch

If you are using an unglazed pot, presoak top and bottom in water for fifteen minutes. Wash chicken, inside and out, under running cold water. Dry with paper towels. Rub inside of chicken with salt, pepper and minced garlic. Stuff with orange slices, peeled. Place chicken in large clay pot, breast down. Grate or process the orange rind and sprinkle over chicken. Add orange juice, soy sauce, ginger, allspice and brown sugar. Place covered pot in cold oven. Turn temperature to 480 degrees. Cook 1 hour and 45 minutes. Ten minutes before done, remove from oven, carefully pour liquid into a saucepan. Return the pot, uncovered to oven for final 10 minutes to brown the chicken. Meanwhile, bring sauce to a boil and thicken with arrowroot or cornstarch, dissolved in a little cold water. Taste and correct seasonings before serving.

Sweet Potatoes

Number of sweet potatoes that will fit in your clay cooker or as many as you plan to serve.
1 cup orange juice

Prick sweet potato skins with fork in several places. Place in clay pot that has been presoaked for 15 minutes. Pour orange juice in pot. Cover and place in cold oven. Turn heat to 480 degrees. Cook 1 hour and 15 minutes. Serve with orange sauce from above recipe or butter and brown sugar.