On Mon, 8 Dec 2003 08:33:17 -0500
"Dee Randall" > wrote:

>
> I have seen posts saying that persons have baked in garden clay pots
> (vs. clay pots made for cooking).
>
> My 2 cents worth:
> I wouldn't want to baking in anything made for the garden and not made
> specifically FOR cooking. I know people do this, but I think this
> calls for thought on one's part before doing it.


The only thing you really have to look out for is this:

In lesser-developed countries (mexico, for example), BTUs come at a
premium, so anything that can lower the firing temperature of your clay
saves you money.

Adding small amounts of mercury or lead (or other heavy metals) easily
accomplishes this, and their use is fairly common practice.

Glazed ceramics, since they're glazed, pose no danger. There's a
layer of mineral glass between your food and the ceramic.

The FDA has strict import regulations regarding unglazed ceramic for
culinary use, basically it must not contain heavy metals.

However, there is no such regulation on other ceramics.

The amount that's likely to be in a flower pot (or tile, or
whathaveyou) is very small. It's not enough to worry about. On the other
hand, I'm not in the habit of consuming heavy metals.

In developed countries, heat is relatively cheap and nobody uses these
techniques.

I would say that there is basically no danger, unless you plan to cook
with it every day and it has 'heche en mexico' pencil-scratched into the
bottom. And no danger at all if it came from anywhere in north america,
europe, or even asia. And flower pots are so cheap to make *here that
there is basically little to gain by importing them, unless you're right
on the border.

I personally know a potter who, outside of his teaching job and the
commissioned work he does at his own studio, regularly cranks out #8
flower pots -- because it takes him maybe 5 minutes to throw them, and
he knows he can always sell them at a profit. It's unreal to watch him
absent-mindedly spinning a few while conversing at the same time.
They're just not very hard to make, even by hand, and most of what you
can buy in major stores was pressed in molds.

There is no possibility of biological or even chemical contamination -
all that turns to carbon in the kiln. Ever see the blackish ceramics
with an oddly iridescent glaze? that's actually fired *in *manure. The
only possible components you have to worry about are heavy metals.