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Saturday, September 27, 2003
Clay Cookware Enjoys Surge in Popularity
By Polly Summar
Journal Staff Writer
It's the strangest thing: For years we've debated cookware as we've put our kitchens together. Shiny copper pans? Calphalon? Stainless steel? Enameled cast iron from France? Do we buy a complete set (cheaper) and end up with a few pieces we never use, or put it together piecemeal? It seems like a science, and one we don't quite understand.
And then along comes some homespun wisdom about cooking in clay. Micaceous clay. The very stuff of New Mexico. If you've lived in New Mexico long enough, you've probably seen the pots for years at arts and crafts fairs. Gingerbread-toned affairs with sparkles in the clay. Chances are, you looked right past the humble vessel to a flashy black-on-black number beside it.
Katharine Kagel, the founding executive chef and owner of Cafe Pasqual's in Santa Fe, was just as surprised when she encountered a kitchenful of the stuff at a friend's home in Alcalde in the mid-'90s. "All the shelves were open and every pot was a clay one and I said, 'What am I looking at? I don't see any metal pots in your kitchen.'"
The friend had discovered the work of Felipe Ortega, a Jicarilla Apache and Hispanic potter, who works with micaceous clay. He makes his pots with simple, classic lines, and they're meant to be used. Even manhandled a bit. In the workshops he gives, he's noted for slamming a pot against a table to show its durability.
Kagel first hired Ortega to build an horno in her yard, then began using his pots. "He challenged me," she says. "He said, 'Here's some dried farm beans, get some spring water, put them in my pot here and call me in the morning.' No garlic, no bay leaf, no onion, nothing."
Turns out, Ortega was right. "That's when I learned about the sweetness and salt that's in the clay body itself. The great thing about Felipe is that he is really and truly an amazing cook and he's making these pots to be utilitarian."
Ortega is currently in Switzerland teaching a workshop on making micaceous clay pottery, something he does every year. "He sends 500 pounds of micaceous clay over there— he moves New Mexico to Switzerland," says Kagel, who now represents Ortega in Cafe Pasqual's Gallery, a space above her popular Santa Fe restaurant.
Like most people who discover micaceous clay pottery, Kagel was eager to try making a pot herself and took a course Ortega was teaching. The pots are made by coiling the clay and then scraping the coils to create a flat, smooth surface— a bit like the way children first learn to make pots.
Cultures around the world have used clay for cooking vessels. In New Mexico, micaceous clay cooking pots date back to A.D. 1300 among the Pueblo people, according to Duane Anderson in his book, "All That Glitters: The Emergence of Native American Micaceous Art Pottery in Northern New Mexico." By A.D. 1500, Anderson writes, both Pueblo and Jicarilla Apache Indians were making micaceous pottery.
Made to be used
Micaceous cooking pots do not work like the Romertopf clay cooking vessel many of us may be thinking of. The Romertopf is soaked in water and then cooks food by actually steaming it. Micaceous clay pots are not unglazed. They are finished with a slip— a slurry of micaceous clay and water applied with a polishing stone.
The firing is done at 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit, according to Tijeras potter Brian Grossnickle, a former student of Ortega's, whose work is also sold at Cafe Pasqual's Gallery.
"Micaceous is fired at a lower temperature as compared to other types of pottery," says Grossnickle, explaining that porcelain and other pottery are fired to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. "So there is a porous quality to the micaceous pottery."
Grossnickle thinks it may be that quality that gives an earthiness to food cooked in it.
Kagel says the pots can be used directly on the stovetop (both electric and gas ranges), in the oven and the microwave. Can any micaceous clay pot be used for cooking? "Well, obviously, if you bought a Lonnie Vigil pot for $10,000, you probably wouldn't want to use it for cooking," she says.
(Vigil, of Nambé Pueblo, shocked the local art scene when a large micaceous clay pot he made was a finalist for the 1992 Santa Fe Indian Market's highest award, Best of Show. He won it in 2001.)
As long as you discuss its utilitarian purposes with the seller, Kagel says, there should be no problem with using a micaceous clay pot for cooking. Ortega's pots are sold by the quantity— $100 a quart. "He keeps his prices low because he wants the pots to be utilitarian," says Kagel. Grossnickle's pots sell for $75 a quart at the gallery.
It's definitely pricier than a three-quart, enameled cast-iron Le Creuset pot— which sells for about $140— but it's an investment in a handmade creation and a bit of New Mexico too. Micaceous clay pots are ceramic and therefore could be broken, but how many times have you actually dropped a cooking pot in your kitchen?
Kagel maintains that the pots are ingenious. They're lightweight and easy to handle. The bean pot shape always has a shoulder so when the simmering water goes up, it hits the shoulder and goes back down again. "It's brilliant, low-tech wisdom," she says.
"The top is cool, and the bottom is hot. You can literally take it from the stove without a hot pad. I do soups, casseroles, stews. I sauté all those things right in the pot. You don't need to be precious about it in any way. It's a real work horse."
Kagel talks about having a clay pot as if it's a friend. "As you use it, it gets darker and darker in color," she says. "It gathers all those memories with it. It gets as worn as we are."
Get your hands dirty with potter Ortega
There's something so delicious about working with clay, like being back in kindergarten mashing, kneading and rolling snakelike ropes of clay.
If you're intrigued by the notion of micaceous clay pottery and would like to try making a pot yourself, Felipe Ortega will be holding a workshop, Monday-Wednesday, Oct. 6-8, at Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs.
The cost, $295 a person, includes all materials. For $395, double occupancy at Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs is included. Food is not included, but a restaurant is located at the hotel.
Classes begin at 9 a.m. with an hour and a half break for lunch and then go until 5 or 6 p.m. During the second day, participants go to Ortega's home for a tour of his studio and gallery and for a lunch, a traditional meal prepared by Ortega in micaceous clay pots.
On the last day of class, pots will be fired at about 6 p.m., in a traditionally constructed adobe brick kiln, using downed wood as fuel, considered the available source of fuel for ancient potters.
For information, contact Beverly Stang at (800) 222-9162 or e-mail beverly@ ojocalientespa.com.