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I’ve fallen in love with kitchen equipment in the past but never as quickly as this last time. This was love at first sight. This love is a clay pot.
Clay pots have been on my radar for some time now. It began with a large casserole with a pig face on it that I spied at Sur La Table a few years back. As a single girl mostly cooking for one, I couldn’t quite justify buying myself a large piggy clay roaster and by the time I got around to ask for it as a birthday gift the item had been discontinued. The clay roaster may have slipped my grasp that time but I don’t think it ever left my heart.
Last month on vacation in Mexico I walked into the kitchen of the house we were staying at one day to find the most beautiful clay pot simmering away on the stove. The pot was medium sized but tall compared to your typical stainless steel saucepans. Slightly bulbous on the bottom, the reddish brown sides curved upwards to meet two rounded handles near the mouth of the pot, topped off with a domed lid with a hat-like single crescent handle. I didn’t even need to see what was inside to know that whatever it was, I wanted to eat it.
The sight of clay pots stirs up something primal in my cooking genes.
Pre-Columbians in what is now Mexico cooked with clay pots. Ancient Romans cooked with clay pots. The Chinese cooked with clay pots. And in all these places, people continue to cook with clay pots to this day. In a modern world of immersion circulators and vacuum sealers, the clay pot is a link in the kitchen between the past and the present.
From a cooking standpoint, clay pots add flavor and moisture to food in a way quite unlike any other cooking vessel. An unglazed clay pot will typically be soaked in water for a few minutes before cooking. The clay soaks up with water which is then released as steam during the cooking process keeping food moist and requiring less fat than the needs of more typical pots and pans.
And unlike a metal pan, a clay pot can actually add flavors to your food. The clay pot is a constantly evolving piece. Each time you cook with it, flavors are soaked up and little bit is left behind. Then when you cook with it next, the pot will pass on traces of its history to the next dish.
Lifting the lid on the clay pot in Mexico revealed a simmering pot of pinto beans. Our cook put that pot of beans on the first day and over the course of our visit removed a scoopful here and there to mash and refry as side dishes to quesadillas and carne asada tacos. I pictured keeping my own clay pot of beans simmering at home as constant companion to whatever I might be working on in the kitchen that evening.
The week after returning home from our Mexican holiday, I stumbled upon an excellent independent cooking store in Walnut Creek, California, called Kitchen Table. It must have been fate because just inside the doors laid out before me was an entire table full of gorgeous red-brown unglazed Chilean clay pots. The 6 quart bean pot was squatter than the one I’d seen in Mexico but practically perfect in every other way, including the price. At just $35, I could afford that clay salt pot or tortilla warmer to go with it.
So far the clay pot has been taken for a spin in slow cooked dish of white beans and pork. Like any great love affair, my relationship with the clay pot will be intense over the next few months as I look forward to trying out all manner of recipes from caramelized fish to braised pork shoulder. After awhile my attentions might wander back to older loves like my blue Le Creuset Dutch oven, or perhaps a new clay pot like the tagine I’ve been eying. But for now I will relish every moment with my new love and take comfort knowing that the history of our relationship will be left behind every time we cook together.
©2026 CDKitchen, Inc. No reproduction or distribution of any portion of this article is allowed without express permission from CDKitchen, Inc.
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For the Love of Clay
I’ve fallen in love with kitchen equipment in the past but never as quickly as this last time. This was love at first sight. This love is a clay pot.
Clay pots have been on my radar for some time now. It began with a large casserole with a pig face on it that I spied at Sur La Table a few years back. As a single girl mostly cooking for one, I couldn’t quite justify buying myself a large piggy clay roaster and by the time I got around to ask for it as a birthday gift the item had been discontinued. The clay roaster may have slipped my grasp that time but I don’t think it ever left my heart.
Last month on vacation in Mexico I walked into the kitchen of the house we were staying at one day to find the most beautiful clay pot simmering away on the stove. The pot was medium sized but tall compared to your typical stainless steel saucepans. Slightly bulbous on the bottom, the reddish brown sides curved upwards to meet two rounded handles near the mouth of the pot, topped off with a domed lid with a hat-like single crescent handle. I didn’t even need to see what was inside to know that whatever it was, I wanted to eat it.
The sight of clay pots stirs up something primal in my cooking genes.
Pre-Columbians in what is now Mexico cooked with clay pots. Ancient Romans cooked with clay pots. The Chinese cooked with clay pots. And in all these places, people continue to cook with clay pots to this day. In a modern world of immersion circulators and vacuum sealers, the clay pot is a link in the kitchen between the past and the present.
From a cooking standpoint, clay pots add flavor and moisture to food in a way quite unlike any other cooking vessel. An unglazed clay pot will typically be soaked in water for a few minutes before cooking. The clay soaks up with water which is then released as steam during the cooking process keeping food moist and requiring less fat than the needs of more typical pots and pans.
And unlike a metal pan, a clay pot can actually add flavors to your food. The clay pot is a constantly evolving piece. Each time you cook with it, flavors are soaked up and little bit is left behind. Then when you cook with it next, the pot will pass on traces of its history to the next dish.
Lifting the lid on the clay pot in Mexico revealed a simmering pot of pinto beans. Our cook put that pot of beans on the first day and over the course of our visit removed a scoopful here and there to mash and refry as side dishes to quesadillas and carne asada tacos. I pictured keeping my own clay pot of beans simmering at home as constant companion to whatever I might be working on in the kitchen that evening.
The week after returning home from our Mexican holiday, I stumbled upon an excellent independent cooking store in Walnut Creek, California, called Kitchen Table. It must have been fate because just inside the doors laid out before me was an entire table full of gorgeous red-brown unglazed Chilean clay pots. The 6 quart bean pot was squatter than the one I’d seen in Mexico but practically perfect in every other way, including the price. At just $35, I could afford that clay salt pot or tortilla warmer to go with it.
So far the clay pot has been taken for a spin in slow cooked dish of white beans and pork. Like any great love affair, my relationship with the clay pot will be intense over the next few months as I look forward to trying out all manner of recipes from caramelized fish to braised pork shoulder. After awhile my attentions might wander back to older loves like my blue Le Creuset Dutch oven, or perhaps a new clay pot like the tagine I’ve been eying. But for now I will relish every moment with my new love and take comfort knowing that the history of our relationship will be left behind every time we cook together.
White Beans and Sausage in a Clay Pot
Made with olive oil, onion, celery, carrot, garlic, rosemary, pork sausages, thyme, diced tomatoes, cannellini beans
Made with olive oil, onion, celery, carrot, garlic, rosemary, pork sausages, thyme, diced tomatoes, cannellini beans
Serves/Makes: 6
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion
- 1 small carrot
- 1 stalk celery
- 2 cloves garlic
- 6 hot pork sausages
- 1 tablespoon chopped rosemary
- 2 sprigs thyme
- 1 cup canned diced tomatoes
- 2 cans (14 ounce size) cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
- 2 cups chicken stock or water
- salt and pepper
Heat the clay pot over a medium high flame (place the pot on a diffuser if using an electric range). Or heat a stainless steel saucepan over medium heat.
Heat oil in the pan. Chop onion, then peel and dice carrot, and chop celery all in a small dice. Cook onion, carrot, and celery in the oil for about 5 minutes until softened. Add garlic and cook for another two minutes.
Working in batches if necessary, brown sausages in the oil with the vegetables. Stir in herbs, tomatoes, beans, water or stock, and a bit of salt and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Cover with a lid and cook for about 10 minutes.
Remove sausages from the mixture and cut into 2 inch pieces then mix back in with the beans. Adjust seasoning if necessary with additional salt and pepper. Serve warm.
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©2026 CDKitchen, Inc. No reproduction or distribution of any portion of this article is allowed without express permission from CDKitchen, Inc.
To share this article with others, you may link to this page:
https://www.cdkitchen.com/cooking-experts/amy-powell/1138-clay-pot-cooking/