Best Practices

Follow our easy Do’s and Don’ts for superior results and to properly care for your clay pot.

1. DO use cooker with adequate liquid so the food and the pot will not burn. Most food takes less than 2 hours to cook. For first time pot use, DO check-in at halfway point to make sure there is ample liquid.
2. Do ADD WARM liquid only while food is cooking or pot is hot when additional liquid is needed. NEVER pour cold liquid into a hot pot.
3. DO place hot pot on a non-metal pot-holder or dry cloth. DO NOT put hot pot on a cold counter or any cold surface including the sink.
4. DO NOT cook easy to burn foods like milk, cheese, tomatoes, roll-cut and quick oatmeal without enough liquid or for too long. Use proper setting. See chart.
5. DO cook roll-cut or quick oatmeal on Slow-Stew setting (NOT RICE SETTING) for 30 minutes or less.
6. DO cook steel-cut oatmeal or oat groats on "soup" setting for 1 hour. Add 8 cups of water per 1 cup of steel-cut oatmeal or groats.
7. DO NOT cook, steam or fry ANY foods dry---without liquid in pot;
   DO NOT dry heat the cooker;
8. DO add 1 cup of water or liquid per 15-minute increment on slow-cooking setting. For example, if slow cooking for 1 hour, add minimum liquid of 4 cups, (2 hours cooking needs 8 cups of liquid) unless the food itself produces enough liquid. First time cooking always try to have more liquid until you get a feel of the cooker then adjust the liquid volume accordingly. Note: The amount of liquid required for VitaClay cooking is similar to stove-top cooking.
9. DO NOT dry heat to cook to bake or to stir fry foods.
10. DO adapt crock pot recipes using VitaClay’s timing conversion formula for perfect results and to avoid burnt food or a cracking your pot. CONVERSION FORMULA -- 8 hours in crock pot LOW (or 4 hours on HIGH) converts to 2 hours in The VitaClay cooker.
11. DO NOT overcook bone broth or meat soups. Chicken broth takes about 2 hours. Beef bone broth takes approx 3-4 hours. To release gelatin and extract minerals from bones, we recommend cooking for appropriate time plus allow pot to stay on WARM for additional 2-12 hours. With Vitaclay 2-4 hours at the most is necessary to achieve the same nutritional values and texture. DO NOT cook or boil for 24 hours.
12. Do account for High Elevation More than 5K miles in altitude may effect rice cooking and boiling time.