Don't wash your earthen cookware with soap; here's how to clean them

Many vouch for the incredible flavour of food items cooked in traditional earthen cookware. You can cook both vegetarian and non vegetarian dishes in high quality earthen pots and vessels.

However, earthen cookware shouldn’t be washed using soap or hard steel scrubbers, which would cause it to crack. Here are ways in which your earthen cookware should be cleaned:

After cooking, boil some water in the earthen cookware. Add 1 tsp baking soda, some lemon juice and lemon wedges too. When the water boils, turn off the flame. Rinse the vessel after the water cools down.

The stains in the cookware would be gone when these ingredients are boiled in it. As the next step, pour out the water and add some chickpea flour, rice powder or wheat flour. Now scrub gently using a soft scrubber.

In case there is oil residue in the cookware, pour ¼ cup vinegar into the vessel and gently scrub. Keep in mind the following pointers:
1. Earthen pots are generally not meant for high-heat cooking. High heat can crack the pot. This cookware is meant for slow cooking processes like boiling, baking, stewing and the like.

2. Ensure that the clay pots you buy are from authentic buyers who don't coat them with harmful compounds for colour or a glazed, polished look. Such elements, high in mercury and lead, are not healthy.

3. Avoid pots with paint works as the oil in the paint can mix with your food or water and become toxic.

4. As terracota cookware can be fragile, make sure you don't store them in cabins at a height. Also, soak them in water for about 10 minutes before you use them for cooking.