How to Use a Clay Pot for the First Time

A new clay pot needs a little preparation before its first meal, and how much depends on whether it’s glazed or unglazed. Get the first cook right and the pot rewards you for years: even heat, moist roasts, and none of the cracks that come from rushing it.

The short version: wash it, soak it if it’s unglazed, then start the first cook in a cold oven and bring the heat up slowly. The rest is detail.

First, unwrap and wash it

Take the pot out of its packaging and wash it by hand in warm water before anything touches food. This clears off dust and any clay residue left from the kiln.

For a glazed pot, a normal wash with a little washing-up liquid is fine. The glaze is a sealed, glass-like surface, so it won’t hold onto soap or smells.

For an unglazed or natural pot, skip the detergent. Raw clay is porous, and it will drink up soapy water and hang onto the taste. Warm water and a stiff brush are all you need. Give it a good rinse, then leave it to air-dry or move straight on to soaking if you’re cooking that day.

Soak an unglazed pot before the first cook

This is the step people miss. Unglazed clay is full of tiny pores, and those pores are the whole point. Before you cook, sit the pot (and its lid, if it has one) in cold water and let it soak for 15 to 30 minutes. It pulls water deep into the clay wall. You’ll often see fine bubbles rise as the trapped air is pushed out.

In the oven, that stored water turns to steam and works its way slowly through the food. It’s a gentle, built-in basting that keeps a chicken tender or a stew from drying at the edges. A dry unglazed pot can’t do this, and it’s also more likely to scorch.

Most cooks soak an unglazed pot before every use, not just the first. It takes a few minutes and makes a real difference to how the food comes out. Our natural clay pots are made to be used this way.

A glazed pot doesn’t need soaking at all. The glaze seals the surface, so there are no open pores to fill. Water just runs off. Give it a rinse and you’re ready. A semi-glazed pot, glazed on one side and bare on the other, only benefits from soaking on its unglazed part, so a short soak still helps.

Know which pot you have

The difference between glazed and unglazed decides almost everything about first use, so it’s worth being clear on which one is sitting on your worktop.

Unglazed (natural) clay looks and feels like raw earth: matte, slightly rough, no shine. It breathes and soaks up water, which is what gives you that steamy, slow-cooked result. In return it asks for a bit of care, a pre-soak before cooking and thorough drying after.

Glazed clay has a smooth, often coloured coating that’s been fired onto the surface. It doesn’t absorb water and wipes clean easily, which makes it the more forgiving of the two day to day. You’ll find these across our lidded glazed pots and our baking and roasting range.

Neither is better. They simply behave differently, and once you know which you’re holding, the rest follows.

The first cook: cold oven, slow heat

Clay doesn’t like sudden temperature changes. Put a cool pot straight into a hot oven and the outside expands faster than the inside, which builds stress in the wall and can crack it. That’s thermal shock, and it’s the single most common way a good pot gets ruined. We go into it properly in the guide on how to avoid thermal shock in clay cookware.

The fix is simple. Heat the pot and the oven together:

1. Put your prepared food into the pot and fit the lid.
2. Place the pot into a cold oven, before you switch it on.
3. Set your temperature and let the pot climb up to heat gradually alongside the oven.

Because the whole thing warms as one, there’s no sudden shock and no rush of expansion. It adds a few minutes to the cook, which you can allow for in the recipe.

One firm rule: keep clay off direct flame. Clay roasters and bakers are made for the oven, not for a gas ring, an electric hob, or an induction plate, where the heat hits one spot far too fast. Unless a product is specifically sold for stovetop use, cook in the oven only.

Cooling and drying: the end of the cook still matters

When the dish is done, the pot is hot right through, and it stays vulnerable to shock until it cools. Lift it out and set it on a wooden board or a folded cloth, never straight onto a cold worktop, a metal trivet, or a stone surface. A hot pot meeting a cold slab is thermal shock in reverse. For the same reason, don’t pour cold water into a pot that’s still hot, and keep it out of a cold draught.

Let it cool down at its own pace. Once it’s cool you can clean it, following the same rules as the first wash: gentle on unglazed, normal on glazed. There’s more detail in our guide on how to clean unglazed clay cookware.

Then dry it fully before it goes away. This matters most for unglazed pots, because clay that’s put away damp can turn musty or grow mould in the pores. Leave it somewhere airy for a few hours, and if it has a lid, store the lid off or slip a cloth between pot and lid so air can move.

A quick word on safety

It’s reasonable to wonder what’s in any material you cook in. Our cookware is tested by an independent lab for lead and cadmium migration, with results well below EU limits. The full picture, including the reports, lives on our safety and materials page.

—