From Ancient Clay Pots to the Modern Kitchen: Choosing Ceramic Cookware With Care

Chef Junnie Lai
13 hours ago
5 min read

We spend a great deal of time thinking about what we eat. We choose fresh vegetables, quality proteins, healthy oils, and seasonings that support both flavor and wellness. But we do not always give the same attention to the vessel holding that food over the flame.

Cookware touches our meals while they are exposed to heat, moisture, oil, salt, and acid. That makes the material we cook in an important part of the food story—not something separate from it.

A collection of traditional and modern ceramic cookware, including Chinese clay pots, casseroles, baking dishes, and tagines.

An Ancient Relationship Between Clay and Food

Ceramic cookware is not a modern wellness trend. It grew from one of humanity’s oldest cooking technologies: shaping clay into a vessel and hardening it with fire. Some of the earliest pottery yet discovered comes from Xianrendong Cave in Jiangxi Province, China. Researchers dated fragments found there to approximately 20,000 years ago—thousands of years before agriculture became established. The discovery suggests that early hunter-gatherers were already using pottery to prepare or cook food.

Ceramic traditions later developed independently and in many forms across Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. So it would not be accurate to say that all ceramic cookware came from one place. But China holds an extraordinary place in its history. Chinese artisans refined earthenware, stoneware, glazing, and high-fired porcelain over thousands of years, influencing ceramic production and dining cultures around the world.

In Chinese cooking, ceramic vessels have never been merely decorative. We use clay pots and ceramic casseroles for soups, congee, rice, medicinal broths, and slow-braised dishes. A shāguō, or Chinese clay pot, brings food directly from the stove to the family table. It represents warmth, patience, and nourishment shared together.

There is also a practical reason these vessels remain beloved. Ceramic generally retains heat well and releases it gradually. This is especially helpful for dishes that benefit from steady cooking and continued warmth at the table. A suitable ceramic surface can also be relatively nonreactive with food. However, performance varies: earthenware, stoneware, porcelain, solid ceramic cookware, and metal pans with a ceramic-style coating are not the same product. The words “ceramic cookware” alone do not tell us exactly what we are buying.

The safety and performance of ceramic cookware depend on its materials, formulation, glazing, firing conditions, testing, and proper use.

When Beautiful Ceramic Ware May Not Be Food-Safe

Ceramic itself is not automatically toxic. The concern is how a piece is formulated, glazed, decorated, fired, tested, and used.

Traditional earthenware is porous, so it is often covered with a glass-like glaze. Historically, lead compounds were added to some glazes because they helped the glaze melt and created a smooth, bright finish. Cadmium has also been associated with certain pigments, particularly vivid decorative colors.

When a lead-containing glaze is properly formulated and fired under controlled conditions, the lead is more securely incorporated into the glaze. But if the temperature, firing time, raw materials, or production controls are inadequate, lead may remain available to migrate into food. Contamination can also occur when supposedly lead-free pottery is fired in an old kiln that was previously used with lead-containing glazes.

Acidic foods—such as tomato sauce, vinegar-based dishes, citrus preparations, and wine sauces—are especially important to consider because acids can encourage migration from an unsafe food-contact surface. Long cooking or storage times may increase contact as well. Cracked, chipped, heavily worn, antique, handmade, or purely decorative pottery deserves particular caution. A beautiful vessel is not necessarily a cooking vessel.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration advises consumers to pay special attention to antique, damaged, irregularly made, brightly decorated, or questionably sourced pottery. If a piece is marked “Not for Food Use,” it should never be used to cook, serve, or store food. Washing or boiling an unsafe piece cannot remove lead from it.

This does not mean we should fear all ceramic cookware. It means we should ask better questions:

Is this solid ceramic, glazed clay, or metal cookware with a ceramic coating?
Is it specifically manufactured for cooking and food contact?
Has the finished product been tested for leachable lead and cadmium—not merely described with a vague “natural” label?
What temperatures and heat sources is it designed to withstand?
Is the surface intact, without cracks, chips, or excessive wear?
Does the manufacturer provide clear care and use instructions?

What I Learned at Pizza Expo

At Pizza Expo, I met representatives from Ceraflame and had an opportunity to learn more about how modern ceramic cookware can be engineered. I am not presenting this company as the only choice, nor am I endorsing a particular product. What interested me was the educational conversation it opened: ceramic cookware should be evaluated by its composition, manufacturing controls, testing, intended use, and performance—not by appearance or the word “ceramic” on a package.

According to Ceraflame, its cookware is made from solid refractory ceramic rather than a metal body covered with a nonstick ceramic coating. The company says its products contain no nonstick chemical coating; are free of lead, cadmium, and heavy metals; are nonporous; and are designed to resist thermal shock. It also states that the cookware is fired at 2,372°F and can be used over direct flame. These are the company’s own product claims, and consumers should review the supporting specifications, testing information, warranty, and instructions for the exact item they are considering.

I also appreciated a practical point in the company’s care guidance: ceramic cooking has a learning curve. Because the cookware holds heat, low-to-medium heat may be sufficient, and the heat can sometimes be turned off before cooking is completely finished. Solid ceramic should not be confused with nonstick cookware; food may require stirring and an appropriate amount of oil. And even thermal-shock-resistant ceramic can still be damaged by impact, so chipping, striking the rim, and careless stacking should be avoided.

That kind of information is useful beyond one brand. A responsible cookware maker should explain not only what a product can do, but also how to use it safely and where its limitations are.

Choosing With Tradition and Modern Knowledge

As a Chinese chef, I feel a natural connection to ceramic cookware. A clay pot simmering on the stove carries memory: soup prepared for someone who is tired, congee cooked gently for an unsettled stomach, or a braised dish kept warm while the family gathers.

Tradition gives us wisdom, but modern knowledge gives us another responsibility. We cannot assume that every handmade, antique, imported, or beautifully glazed pot is safe for food. We need to know who made it, what it was designed for, how it was tested, and how it should be cared for.

Choosing cookware is part of choosing food with care. The goal is not to become frightened by every pan or bowl in our kitchen. It is to become more conscious of what touches our food—especially when heat, acid, and time are involved.

The next time you choose a pot, look beyond its color and beauty. Ask what it is made from. Ask whether the finished surface has been tested for leaching. Read the instructions. Inspect it as it ages. A cookware purchase may seem like a small decision, but it becomes part of every meal prepared inside it.

Our ingredients matter. Our cooking methods matter. And the vessel that brings them together matters, too.

Disclosure: Ceraflame is included because Chef Dr. Junnie Lai met the company at Pizza Expo and learned from its representatives and published materials. This article is educational and is not a paid endorsement. Company-specific claims are attributed to the company and should be independently reviewed before purchase or use.