'Tis the season for slow-cooking! I've heard a lot about clay bakers, like the Romertopf, and how effective they are at making any slow-cooked dish emerge from the oven tender and flavorful. Do you have one?
These bakers and cookers are made of porous hard-baked clay and need to be soaked in water before using. The water absorbed by the clay evaporates in the heat of the oven, ensuring that the food inside is cooked a moist environment at a very steady temperature. Besides being easy to use, a big selling point for these bakers has always been that dishes require very little liquid or fat to cook; the steam does all the work.
Any dish destined for slow-cooking in the oven can be cooked in a clay baker. Stews, braises, whole chickens, baked beans, and even loaves of bread come out beautifully in these bakers. The bakers can be carried directly to the dinner table and the insulating clay will keep the food warm.
A negative for me is that these bakers can't be used on the stovetop. One of the things I love about my dutch oven is that I can sear meat over high heat, add the rest of the ingredients, and put it right into the oven. Or if my oven is otherwise occupied, I can put the dutch oven on a back burner over low heat. Also, without handles and knobs, I wonder how easy it is to handle these clay cookers when hot from the oven and remove the lid.
On the other hand, clay cookers tend to be more affordable than dutch ovens and last forever when properly cared for (where enamel-coated dutch ovens tend to crack and chip over time). There is also some evidence that the alkaline nature of clay pots actually improves the flavor and nutritional value of foods.
Should you buy one? Since clay bakers function much the same as dutch ovens and slow-cookers, my feeling is that you don't need a clay baker if you already have one of those pieces of cookware. If you're in the market, however, a clay baker would make both a beautiful and a functional addition to your kitchen.
Check out these popular models:
• Romertopf 3 1/2 Quart Clay Baker, $59 from Williams-Sonoma
• Schlemmertopf Clay Bakers, $35 - $65 from Sur la Table
• La Chamba Casserole Dishes, $37.50 - $110 from Toque Blanche (Read Faith's review!)
Do you own a clay cooker? Would you recommend other people buy one?
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(Image: Williams-Sonoma)
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We had a few, but I didn't see any real difference and I finally made my husband give them up - mostly because they are hard to clean :)
I say no too. We had one growing up I think my mom or grandma used a handful of times...Was a pain to clean and worked just as well as any roasting pan or dutch oven.
I have a tagine, which is technically a clay baker, and the comments above are pretty much accurate: it's a pain to clean, and a dutch oven (where you also have the ability to start things on the stove) is so much easier.
That said, the visual appeal of the tagine is gorgeous, and it's beautifully flashy for dinner parties and such. A regular clay baker that lacks the visual "oomph" just seems like more trouble than it's worth!
we have one and i can only remember one time in 5 years that i've seen it used.
I do actually use mine. I like how the chicken turns out with it. It was - however - a gift and I can't imagine that I would have spent the money on one myself.
I was given one which I used a few times, but then it broke. I felt no loss. I have a good selection of dutch ovens, roasting pans, etc., which meet my needs very well.
For most things(braising, stews) I'll use a dutch oven or crock pot. But the clay cooker does an impressive job with roasting chicken.
I'm with SeattleJ: when I was growing up, we had a Romertopf clay crock and I used it almost exclusively for chicken with vegetables: I'd chunk up potatoes and carrots and onions into the soaked pot, scatter salt over them, put the chicken on top, and pop it all into the cold oven*, then turn it on and let it bake. The result was always tender and immensely flavorful, and the vegetables were irresistible. I assume it was the effect of the gentle steaming that made it so delicious and so much more tender than actual roasted chicken.
It was hard to clean because you mustn't use soap on it, but I found I could get it clean with baking soda paste (which I then rinsed off quite carefully so it didn't give a salty-soapy residue next time I used the pot).
*For me, this was the hardest part: remembering not to preheat the oven.
I have a question: several years ago, my mother gave me an unglazed clay pot. It has much thinner walls and is much lighter-weight than the thick-walled Romertopf.
Does anyone know if the instructions for this thin-walled pot are the same as for the heavier clay pots? It didn't come with directions and I've had no luck searching for them online.
I have one and have used it many times in the past. But, these days I lean on my dutch oven more. But, I still use the Romertopf for baking bread ... really HUGE loaves of bread. Delicious, fragrant loaves with crispy crusts ... mmmmm ....
I have had a Romertopf for 20 years and I love it. I had tried to use it exclusively for chicken, however recently I begun to make chinese claypot recipies with pork or shortribs in it. I don't know what it is, but this pot turns out the most tender, moist, delectable food. I would buy another if mine were to break. I take very good care of it.
I also use mine for No Knead bread recipes and I haven't needed to soak the pots first...... I was leary of not soaking but so far I haven't had a problem with cracking.......Not soaking I find makes a crisper crust.
My bread turns out much better in the Romertopf than it ever did in the cast iron dutch oven. I just pre-heat the Romertopf and drop the dough parchment paper and all into the pot and cover....... Bread comes out beautifully.
By the way, I got both my Romertopf pots from Thrift stores for less than ten dollars.
Zilly -Thanks for the tip about using it for claypot recipes----Sounds delicious!
I use mine all the time - but then again, I live in Germany... Love it for chicken, it makes a sauce, too and all I need to do is mashed potatoes. Yum.
I have a clay top for my berndes dutch oven - clean up is easy and things stay moist!
My mom gave me hers and I've only used it once. I just don't know what to make in it!
I think here in the states most people who use a clay cooker are due to their parents and grandparents using them, or they got one as a wedding gift and finally decided to give it a try. I'm part of the latter. Thankfully my wife used it one night and now we are hooked. We are tempted to get the Romertopf 117 and really see if you can do a Thanksgiving dinner out of it...