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• And in doing so, you EARN good commissions on each sale!!
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Anyone who is given to healthy cooking, natural living, and loving & appreciating the goodness of nature- with its great potential to us- can participate in our affiliate program.

You can promote our products on your website, blog, social sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) or e-newsletters. You can even promote via print media, in stores with display marketing, or by word of mouth using a unique tacking code!

To join our affiliate program, all you need is a PayPal account to receive payments & a willingness to share the word! When you sign up here by completing the form, you will receive a login and password to your email address. Using this login and password you can access your own affiliate area that has all other information you may need.

Each Affiliate will get a unique ID and/or code. Both of these are trackable, letting us know the origin of the sale.

If promoting online, you can either use text or banner ads with links that hold the codes. These links can be directed to specific pages on our site or directly to our store page where the customer can make a purchase.

If promoting on print media, in stores by display ads, or even word-of-mouth, email us and we will give you a trackable code. It comes with an incentive for the customer to use them. For instance, if you have been assigned a code: FRDG22MEC, you will give this to your customer to use during checkout and let them know they can save $5.00 on their order by using the code. This code is trackable and you will receive credit for sending that customer to our store.

Commissions are held for a period of 1 month to protect the company in the event of chargebacks, refunds, or other scenarios that may rarely occur. We pay all commissions accrued and payable to affiliates within 7 days of the first day of each month.

For example, all sales made in May will be paid out between July 1st to July 7th. Payments are made to the affiliate’s PayPal account, so please make sure your PayPal email is accurate.

When making pure-clay ware without elasticizes, plasticizers or petalite (an ore of lithium), some lids may naturally warp slightly during firing.  For this reason we check and mark those pieces with a pencil, with the mark running from the edge of the lid to the rim of the pot. This is a good reference for finding the best fit between the lid and pot.

Here are some answers to additional questions you might have:

1. Are products that have the pencil marks from the Regular Line?

Yes, we mark both the Regular and Alternate line.

2. Won’t the pencil marks eventually wash off? Then, I wouldn’t know how the lid should fit on that pot?

Yes, the pencil marks will eventually wash off, but before then:

a. With repeated use, ”heating and cooling” the pot/lid pair will help them settle into a certain best fit position.

b. When you see the mark fading, you can easily re-mark the same place with a pencil.

3. If the pencil marks indicate the exact position that the lid should be sitting on the pot, then other lids from other pots would not fit, correct? Meaning, only a specific lid will fit with a specific pot?

There could be other lids that fit the pan/pot, but in that given batch of firing, this pair was determined to have the best fit.

In order to provide to you the safest cookware, all of Miriam’s Earthen Cookware is made from the highest quality 100% pure and primary clay.  They are handmade without using any additives throughout the making process (i.e. processing of the clay, making, finishing, or firing of the pots). No glazes are used to cover imperfections either, so it is very natural for minor surface imperfections to be present.

Also note, we do not guarantee a perfect, machine-cut fit for lids.  The utmost care is taken to ensure they are made to fit well on the pots without the use of any additives to control or inhibit the clay’s natural shrinking properties.  For your benefit, you may see we have individually hand-marked the best fit for some lids with a pencil (especially for ones that sit better at one particular position). These pencil marks can be easily erased with a regular pencil eraser, if you don’t need them.

It is not a perfectly fitting lid that locks steam inside your MEC pots and pans. There are many other unique features that contribute to how steam management works, and you can read about it here: MEC’s Steam Management Properties Explained.

The imperfections on the ‘Alternate Line’ are more pronounced than the ones on the ‘Regular Line’.

When taken care of the right way, MEC pots can last a very long time. Some traditional clay cooks replace their pots once a year or at least once every 2 years, that is because it is believed that in this time the food would have extracted nutrients from the clay as needed (much of food today is nutritionally lacking to an extent because of the commercial growing and processing practices).

Another reason they replace the pot within this time frame is because the pot may have shrunk to a point where it can no longer fortify the food with oxygen. Being porous, the pot allows food to “take in” air, oxygenating the food while cooking, but it slowly shrinks over time and after many months of use the pores come together tightly allowing less and less air and oxygen to be taken in.

Those aware about the nutritional fortification and the pots ability to breathe change theirs every 1-2 years. However, the pot itself is functional and cooks your food even after this time period.

Yes! You can get a group order discount. In this case, the shipping address must be the same for the entire order and it must be on one order. Orders for more than 20 items (excluding heat diffusers) qualify for a group order discount. Please email us when you are ready to place your order and we will offer the best possible discount at that time.

Being the manufacturer itself, our allocated shipping days are Mondays and Thursdays. All orders received from Monday afternoon to the following Sunday will be shipped out on the subsequent Monday or Thursday. Shipments take about 2-5 business days to reach you anywhere in the Continental USA and 5-7 business days internationally anywhere in the world.

We take only custom orders if:

1. What is available now is inadequate for your needs.

2. The custom item will make a difference in the health/nutritional value of food.

We specifically stay away from customization if we know that the new items may be an impediment to healthy cooking.

The good news is you don’t really need custom pots for instant pot cooking. You can cook all your food healthier and faster directly on the stove-top. In addition, the pot can “breathe” when on the stovetop, thereby fortifying food with oxygen. In an instant pot machine, this is not possible. On top of that, the unit is made with toxic materials and plastic, which can off-gas into food and the air.While most cooking takes several hours in an instant pot, they can be done in 30-40 minutes in MEC. The end result is more nutritious, delicious, and 100% non-toxic.

Yes, we ship internationally to all parts of the world!

International orders ship via UPS Worldwide Expedited. Orders take 1-4 days to leave our warehouse, and they reach their destination country within 6-10 business days thereafter. We have negotiated shipping charges to provide you with the best possible discount on shipping.

Yes, you can! Our pickup hours are Wednesday and Thursday between 1pm and 6pm, or you can schedule an appointment. Please email us a list of the items you’d like to buy and your preferred date and time of visit. We will get back to confirm the appointment.

It is typical for the pot to acquire a general smell of food, but it is not an obvious smell unless you stick your nose in the pot. Because it is an unglazed porous pot, it takes in some of the fragrances from the food. However, this does not cause any mixing of flavors while cooking other dishes in any way!

When seasoning a new pot, small bits of meat in a soup is fine, but larger chunks of cooked meat can leave a residual smell.

To help get this smell out, steam cleaning the pot will help. To do so, first fill the pot 1/4 way up with water. Set the pot on the stove at low heat, cover the lid, and let steam build up for 10 minutes. Add either a a cinnamon stick or a lemon/lime wedge for fragrance. Cover the lid and steam for another 10 minutes on low heat.Turn the stove off, open the lid, and let the water cool down for 10 minutes. Pour the water out while it is still warm.

Sometimes, it may appear that your pot retains extra moisture and cannot fully air-dry. This may be the case because the pot is new & didn’t get used enough times (6-7 times) after the initial seasoning; as a result, the pot’s semi-porous walls have not had an opportunity to shrink and therefore are holding some moisture. Most times, wiping the pot down with a cotton cloth after washing wicks the moisture out, allowing for faster drying.

Longer drying times may also occur if you are living in cold or very humid areas. In these cases, you can help the pot dry faster by wiping it down with a cotton cloth after washing, then drying it on the stovetop on the lowest heat setting until the rim is hot to the touch. This needs to be done only a few times, and you will see the pot drying faster overall after this process.

Sometimes you may experience cream, or black colored bubbles or whiteish residue on the outside of the pot while cooking. Here’s why this happens:

Miriam’s Earthen Cookware being made from 100% pure & Primary clay, extracts toxins as a result of its purity and negatively charged ions, when heated. These toxins, which have a positive charge, could be from the soap used to wash them, and/or in the food & water, including additives/metals in water; animal fat (most animals store toxins in the fat); and pesticides, fertilizers, & heavy metals found in vegetables, lentils, & beans. Since the pot is unglazed, these toxins get pushed out all the way to the outside walls of the pot.

In our testing and experience, changing water to filtered water has sometimes eliminated this issue. Also, changing from non-organic to organic ingredients helps reduce and eventually stop this. We also recommend not using any commercial soap for cleaning.  Cleaning is a breeze and baking soda is enough to get the job done well!

Also, please note that if you have changed water upon noticing this, it may take 1-2 uses before the oozing stops. Well water or water in some cities have a higher concentration of metals, chlorine, chloramine, and other toxins, and they are removed this way.

This can also occur if chemical ingredients like pectin or other additives are used like when making jellies.

If you see this happening a lot, and you have addressed the cause, it is a good idea to clean the pot in the following manner before continuing to cook in them:

Wash the pot thoroughly and steam water in it without the lid on. Typically, the pot pushes out toxins, but when steaming water with the lid open it will pull-in anything in the walls. After steaming for 10 minutes, turn stove off and let pot cool down until water is warm. Pour water out and wipe dry with cotton cloth. Set it aside to air dry for about 10-15 minutes before using again.

Cracks form for three reasons:

1) Exposed to more heat than needed for long periods of time:

During the firing process, Miriam’s Earthen Cookware withstands more than 2000 Degrees Fahrenheit, so it can certainly withstand high cooking temperatures. However, during cooking, the pot needs only a low heat setting to accomplish cooking your food (without damaging the nutritional cells), if the pot is let to cook on settings higher than medium, instead of indiscriminately throwing the heat onto the food, the pot will crack to form a vent for the heat to escape so it can maintain just the right amount of heat to complete the cooking process in this healthy manner.
Comparing this to cooking in metals and other materials: they need higher amounts of heat for cooking typically higher than medium settings. Many times a pot half or more full can only accomplish cooking at medium-high heat or more. Natural clay is an excellent retainer of heat and as a result, a lower stove setting accomplishes cooking just as well. On the other hand, conventional materials heat & cool at the same time so more heat is needed overall!

2) Long periods of uneven & sporadic heat:

If a pot is subject to uneven heat for long periods of time, one side of the bottom will heat up more than the other, causing the heated bottom portion to pull away from the cooler side.

In addition, high concentrations of thermal shock due to sporadic heating (like it happens with glass/ceramic cooktops) may damage the pot further. This is typically seen with glass/ceramic cooktops; as a result, we recommend using a heat diffuser on these cooktops. This will help distribute the heat more evenly to the pot.

3) Dry cooking:

Cooking high and dry is another cause. Cracks may form if the heat is too high, i.e. cooking above medium-low heat, especially when cooking dry or semi-dry recipes. It’s best to cook these kinds of recipes (like stir-fries and sautés) after the pot is fully seasoned. Additionally, heat settings should not be higher than medium-low heat on gas stoves or medium heat (at the most) on electric stoves with diffusers.
If you avoid cooking with high and uneven heat, you can have a pot that lasts forever! Please note that if your pot has a crack, the pot should not shatter. Cracks develop over time and it is still safe to use your pots despite these cracks, and if you go back to cooking at less heat, the crack should naturally heal (in this case, the crack will still be visible, but no leaking will come from it). For any cracks that continue to leak, here are two methods to help heal these cracks:

Any cracks that cause leaking can be healed by these two methods:

Method 1:
Thoroughly clean the pot with water and baking soda and wipe it dry with a cotton cloth. Set it aside to dry for about 5-10 minutes (if pot is already clean & dry, skip this step). Apply some oil (any cooking oil, like olive, coconut, or sesame seed) thoroughly with your hands onto the full surface of the pot (both inside and outside). Heat it in the oven at 250 degrees F for 25-30 minutes. Turn oven off; let pot cool down slightly before taking it out. After taking out of oven, let it sit for about 12 hours for the crack to fully heal. 
This process can also be done to strengthen the pot, if you ever experience chipping.

Method 2:
Make a paste with 2 tsp. water + 1 tsp. flour (any whole grain or other flour). Wash pot thoroughly and apply paste on outside and inside of pot along the crack line and a bit of the surrounding area. Let the paste dry slightly, then heat the pot with lid off on the stove on the lowest heat setting, until the rim is hot to the touch. When the pot is heated, clay platelets expand and come together and the paste will seal the crack. Wait for the pot to completely cool down before washing it.

You can repeat this process one more time if you still see liquids leaking from the crack, but in most cases, doing this one time should seal and heal the crack quite well.

After healing the crack using either method, you can additionally put 16″ or 14″; copper or steel wire (available at home improvement stores) under the rim of the pot, and twist the edges of the wire for it to stay in place (see image above).

It is important that the pot/pan gets to rest for 1-2 days after the healing process. When using for cooking after that please cook only on low to medium-low heat (medium heat maximum, if using on electric stove with diffuser). This process can heal cracks about 97% of the time.
Having tried this, if the pot continues to leak, here are ideas on other uses for this pot.

There are several benefits to not using this toxic paint-like substance to coat our cookware. Here are a few:  Glazing blocks micro-pores and prevents the pots ability to breathe. A breathable pot is capable of so much more; for instance, it can make your yogurt naturally thicker, let rice cook fluffier & softer (not sticky), cook without using oil (can’t cook without oil or grease on glazed cookware), and extract toxins from food.

Also, they’re much easier to clean without the glaze on the walls: a seasoned, breathable pot repels food from sticking.  Glaze is toxic, and it doesn’t make sense to coat a 100% pure & non-toxic raw material, used for cooking with a toxic & potentially dangerous substance that’s neither time-tested nor proven to be safe.  Glazing also creates toxic waste &: it generates toxic fumes during firing that clearly would disqualify our product from being 100% non-toxic and safe!

Miriam’s Earthen Cookware features a unique handle design where the handle is incorporated onto the rim of pot/pan, griddle while the pot is being made. This “handle” is the protruding lip that runs around the circumference on the top.

They are made by a special method of coil-compressing the clay into place. This special method of crafting the lid allows for the handle to stay cooler than the rest of the body of the pot. It is also the same method the knob on the lid is made! The handles provide a firm grip just like a traditional two-sided handle, but the good news is that this newer design solves many problems that traditional handles pose:

• The handle runs around the circumference of the pot, so it is easy to grab and hold the pot from any side. There is no need to over-think handle accessibility while placing a pot full of ingredients on the stove! If you do end up placing the pot in the wrong direction, you do not need to worry about turning around a hot pot with food to the correct position just to access the handles.
• The handle is not affixed to the pot after it is made; it is made while the pot itself is being formed. This means that after years of use, you do not need to worry about screws coming out or an affixed handle breaking off.
• Coil pressing the clay into a handle means no silicone padding or other materials for cooling are required, keeping the pot entirely non-toxic and eco-friendly. The handle stays naturally cooler than the rest of the pot because of this method. Sometimes, it may be necessary to use oven mitts to handle the pot if the pot has been cooking food for more than 30 or 40 minutes, but recipes usually do not require this long, anyways!
• The handle is uniform throughout the circumference of the pot and does not protrude, making it a chip-resistant design. This means less kitchen accidents, too!
• When stirring food in conventional cookware (metal/ceramic), the smooth metal pan moves all around your stovetop, forcing you to grab the handle before stiring. With MEC, the material has a higher density and offers more friction, meaning your pot will not move around while stirring!

Traditional slow cooker or crock pot recipes in conventional cookware can be harmful to health because:

Long hours of cooking in a metal or ceramic pots can allow chemicals like cadmium, lead, petalite (lithium) and metal ions [Al-Aluminium, Ni-Nickel (steel), Ti- Titanium (steel), MO molybdenum (steel), Cr-Chromium (steel), Fe-Iron (steel)] leach into your food! While food is breaking down and cooking, the food’s readily reactive biochemicals easily bond with leaching metals and toxins from the pot.

Harsh heat generated from the walls of a traditional crock insert harms food tissue and destroys important vitamins, minerals, and proteins.

In contrast, MEC cooks healthier slow cooker/crock pot recipes because:

Cooking in MEC on the stove top does the opposite with food. Since the pot is 100% inert, you don’t have to worry about anything leaching into your food and the food remains pure and unaltered.

MEC pots cook with earthen far-infrared heat. This unique and powerful form of heat cooks food without destroying the nutrients in it.

MEC cooks any slow cooker recipe in under 2 hours max. The unique far-infrared heat from MEC pots can cook the same food in less time – all on medium heat or less (stove top). This directly contrasts the many, many hours of conventional slow cooking! And no, the shorter time or the higher heat does not damage nutrients in this case!

Slow Cooking Beans & Lentils in MEC:

Most beans & lentils can cook within 40-50 minutes (compared to 6-8 hours in a slow cooker).

Cooking Bone Broth in MEC:

Beef bone broth, a typical slow cooker recipe that takes 12 hours minimum in a slow cooker, can be done in 2 to 2.5 hours maximum (6 qt. quantity). The broth comes out fully done, the minerals extracted remain intact, and the dish tastes more delicious and nutritious than traditional long hours of cooking. Our customers vouch for this:

“I enjoy cooking with Miriam’s Earthen Cookware. First, it gently steams the food and does not overcook it. I especially like making bone broth. Even the poultry bones produce a gelatinous broth! In other cookware, the poultry bone broth is liquid and runny. Great is the time it takes, only 3 to 4 hours instead of 12 to 24! I recommend Miriam’s Earthen Cookware!”

— Irene Walther, Orlando, FL | Feb 11, 2018

The Aspect of Convenience:

Of course, one might think slow cooking is more convenient, but what is convenience if it’s bad for our health and can make you sick? Besides, cooking in less time is what is truly convenient: all it takes is a little bit of planning. If it means your food is going to be far more nutritious, non-toxic, and healthy; it is totally worth making the switch.

Slow Cooking in the Oven with MEC:

You can also use MEC for slow cooking in the oven, and the food can cook much faster without much monitoring. Another clear advantage over using a slow cooker machine is the ability to fit more than one pot at a time in the oven!

Here’s how: Put all your ingredients together in the pot and set bake temperature to 230 D Fahrenheit. Set the oven timer to 3-4 hours for meats or 1-2 hours for vegetarian recipes, beans, or grains. The oven timer is a little-known feature that lets you use the oven for timed cooking, much like a programmable slow cooker. Once the set hours elapse, the oven will automatically turn to warm (in most cases, 170 d F) and will eventually shut off. With most ovens, you can also set a delayed start. Please make sure to read the oven’s manual before setting this up for the first time.

When cooking in conventional pots, moisture breaks into steam right from the start because the entire pot and lid quickly heat up. This steam tries to find a way to escape because the very hot walls of the pot cannot let the steam condense. As a result, the steam must be vented out of conventional cookware through steam vents.

In contrast, the heat from your MEC pot is uniquely food-friendly — it first spreads the heat evenly, then it cooks the food almost halfway before steam can be released. The steam that now slowly builds up inside the pot gets condensed because of the special design of the pot & lid, allowing it to circulate inside and letting food cook with its own steam pressure.

The straight walls of the pot made in concentric circles, the inner flute on the lid, and a cooler knob underside allow for steam to rise, condense, and drop right back into the pot/pan. The pan has a taller, more conical lid design compared to the pot to help with steam retention, given its shallow base & shorter walls.

This benefits the food immensely on a nutritional level because steam contains water-soluble nutrients. 9 of the 13 essential vitamins and minerals are water-soluble, so any steam lost is nutrients lost!

MEC has no steam vents on the lid: it can safely use the steam pressure to cook your food retaining these essential nutrients!

Note: MEC still retains steam even if the lid has a slight wobble or imperfect close. This wobble forms naturally during the firing process due to water molecules escaping the clay body (at temperatures of over 900-110 Degrees Fahrenheit). We don’t prevent this from happening as a precautionary measure. In case one forgets to turn the stove off, the imperfect close allows excess steam to escape before damage occurs to your pot or pan. Before sending out any pot/pan, we check the fit of all pots & lids to ensure functionality, despite a slight wobble (if present).

There are so many things that make us special! Here are just a few things that distinguish MEC:

• The world’s first cookware makers lab testing the raw material AND proving our customers this information.
• Also, the world’s first to make 100% Non-Toxic Cookware, Bakeware and Kitchenware. Only one where absolutely no additives are used.
• Each piece of our hand-crafted cookware is unique and one-of-a-kind that is has no exact duplicates!
• MEC is also the worlds first 100% Green Product: Made from pure nature, without any additives, packed in green and bio-degradable materials, shipped green, functions green and can be disposed 100% green!
• It is also the first modern cookware made for stovetop, oven, outdoor grills, camping stoves, solar ovens… and more.
• We are a woman-owned business that ships worldwide!

Miriam’s Earthen Cookware can transition from being a pressure cooker to a Dutch oven to a slow cooker all in the same cooking session, depending on how it is used!

To use MEC as a pressure cooker, add your ingredients to the pot (i.e. dried beans cooking from scratch, or meat), add enough water, and cover and cook until your ingredients are 3/4 way done. It is important in this case to leave ¼ of the pot empty to provide room for steam to build up – this steam pressure is what cooks your food quickly and efficiently.

Once your beans or meat is done, you can let it cool down and either store/refrigerate it (to add it to recipes later), or you can now convert the pot into a Dutch oven for the next cooking steps. You can do this by stirring in other ingredients (i.e. Vegetables and spices) as needed to complete cooking your dish — like when making a Chili.

Taking it one step further, you can transition your pot into a slow cooker: you turn the heat down to low and let the ingredients simmer and complete the cooking process. In most cases, the stove can be turned off 15 minutes before the food is fully done: the heat retained inside is sufficient to finish the cooking your food to perfection!

When seasoned and used correctly, MEC naturally is more non-stick than pots or pans with the thickest layer of non-stick coating (toxic coating)!

As long as they’re seasoned and used a few times for wet recipes, they become fully non-stick and repel food from sticking to the walls.

For this reason, they are also much easier to clean than any metal (cast iron, aluminum, titanium), alloyed metal (stainless steel), or glazed ceramic ware. For cleaning, wet the pot inside and out, sprinkle baking soda, rub and scrub thoroughly, and rinse off with water.

Copper diffusers throw out a lot of heat, and they do so quite unevenly.
Usually, the center could have a lot more heat than the outsides, and this type of uneven & high heat could cause your pot to crack.

As a result, we strongly recommend avoiding using a copper diffuser with your MEC pure-clay pots and pans. Diffusers made of cast iron, carbon steel, or aluminum should work fine.
If using on glass/ceramic cook tops, we recommend the Simmermat diffuser or the ILSA diffuser.

For a new pot, the firing process could leave some residual clay, which comes out while wiping. This does not get into food though, because we have tested it cooking plain white rice and steaming milk – both these ingredients can quickly take from what is next to it or added to it, but in both cases, we did not find clay mixed with food. So, we can confirm that this is only while wiping after washing for the first 1-2 times.  It is however important to note that our clay is even purer than food grown today and is composed of essential nutrients so there is nothing to worry about.

The clay residue will stop coming when wiping after a few uses.

A heat diffuser evenly spreads heat to the bottom of your MEC pot or pan.

Almost all automatic electric cooking ranges have a certain amount of unevenness in distribution of heat. Sporadic heat bursts are also common with these kind of stoves.
So if you have a electric stove, i.e. coil, glass, or ceramic cooktops, make sure to use a heat diffuer between your pot and the source of heat. The pots can form a crack over time if a diffuser is not used becuase of the uneven and sporadic heat.
A diffuser is not needed when cooking on gas ranges, as these stoves disperse heat more evenly than electric.
If using the pot for long hours of slow cooking (for example, bone broth), please use a heat diffuser regardless of your type of stove.
Of course, you don’t need to use a diffuser when cooking in the oven.
If you need a heat diffuser, you can get one here: MEC Heat Diffusers

MEC products are versatile, and they can be used on a wide variety of heat sources. The list below tells you which heat sources need a heat diffuser and which don’t. You can get a heat diffuser to go with your MEC order here.

You can use MEC on the following surfaces WITHOUT a heat diffuser:

• Gas stove
• Oven
• Open flame
• As a slow-cooker insert
• Outdoor grill
• Solar oven

With these natural heat sources heat is steadily and evenly spread, so there is no need for a diffuser in these cases – provided you keep the heat setting between low and medium-low throughout the cooking process.

You can use MEC WITH a heat diffuser on the following heat surfaces:

• Wood stove
• Ceramic/Glass Cooktop
• Induction stove

A diffuser is needed with these heat sources because electric heat is sporadic and uneven. A diffuser in these cases help spread the heat out evenly to the 100% natural pot.

What is the maximum temperature in an oven (+ wood fired oven)?

In the oven (both types), the recommended max temperature is 450 Degrees Fahrenheit. Start at lowest temperature (~250 Degrees F) and increase to desired temperature after 5-10 minutes.

Store with lid open and in a well ventilated place where MEC has access to sunlight or daylight. Avoid storing in closed or damp areas. Occasionally (once every 2 months), it’s also a good idea to dry your pots on the stove top at the lowest setting for 5-10 minutes or until warm to touch on the outside, before putting away. The pots can be stacked one inside the other.

You can find detailed storage instructions on our Cooking & Care page.

No, you don’t have to season it again. Just let it soak in water for about 20 minutes and apply some cooking oil to the outside and inside of the pot while it’s in the water. Let it dry; then you can start cooking with it again!

If you have an electric stove, the first thing you need is a heat diffuser to ensure the heat distributes evenly to your MEC product. Here are some other important things to note for cooking on an electric stove:

If You Have a Glass/Ceramic Cooktop, Keep These Points in Mind:

• Initially, cooking your meals may take slightly longer. For the first few uses, you may turn the stove up to the medium heat setting (or slightly past) if the pot is more than half-full — after cooking for 5 minutes on low. However, as the pot becomes accustomed to cooking on lower heat with multiple uses, you do not need to go past medium-low. 
• Some ceramic/glass burners have multiple ring sizes in a single burner (for example: one burner with a 6 inch, 8 inch, and 12 inch diameter ring). Avoid this kind of burner, because these give off too much heat regardless of the setting. 
• For a heat diffuser, we recommend using the ILSA or the SimmerMat. In just a few instances, one may work better than another depending on your stove. It is hard to pre-determine which diffuser will work best for your specific stove; however, this will become evident once you start using the diffuser. Incompatibility occurs due to the interaction between the diffuser and the chemicals of the stovetop material. 
• You will know if the diffuser is incompatible if you experience much longer-than-usual cooking times and/or a foul smell while cooking. In this instance, first try reducing the heat. If these issues persist, try a different diffuser. If the issue continues after trying different diffusers, then it might be worth investing in a hot plate with a cast-iron top or a portable gas stove for cooking. 

MEC’s useful life cycle can span for decades, or even across generations. However, there may come a time where you can no longer cook with it due to damages or long-term wear. Despite this, there are several uses for your MEC product, even after it can no longer cook!

Note: Before writing off your MEC product as unusable due to a crack, please note that 90% of cracks can be healed, and you can use MEC for cooking again after healing a crack. However, there are rare instances where the crack does not heal, rendering the pot unusable.

Here are some recommended uses for your pot/pan after its useful life cycle:

Storing Fruits & Veggies: It can be used to store fresh fruits and vegetables in the fridge. Produce lasts longer and remains fresh because the inert pot prevents depletion of nutrients caused by EMF radiation (electro-magnetic field radiation).

Organic Sprouting: Your beans/lentils will thrive in the breathable, nutrient rich pot/pan and sprout more fully than in other vessels.

How To Use MEC For Sprouting: Soak your beans/lentils in a glass bowl for 12 hours. Drain the water and put the beans in your MEC pure-clay pot. Close the lid and put the pot in the oven. Your beans will sprout in these pots with just the heat from cooking on the stove top above. In the winter, if need be, leave the oven light on to give some additional heat. Your beans/lentils will sprout in 8-12 hours. Most other sprouting vessels are made of plastic, take 5-7 days to sprout, and need repeated meticulous water management.

Natural Refrigeration: Going camping? Or living off the grid and need a place to store fresh food for a few days? Your damaged pot can make a great natural refrigerator. Just wet the whole pot under running water for 2 minutes, drip dry, place the foods you need refrigerated inside, dip the lid in water, then close the pot. You can safely store milk, fruits, vegetables, bread, and so on for some time. The pot & lid will let the water evaporate very slowly, keeping the food inside cool and safe. How long food can stay without going bad depends on the weather and your location, so we recommend storing small quantities starting out.

Herb/Vegetable Planting: These 100% non-toxic pots make great planters in your kitchen or outside for all your herbs or small vegetable plants. Plant and see your vegetation thrive in them!

If you can’t find any extra use from your MEC product because it is too damaged, don’t worry! Since our pots are 100% compostable, you can safely dispose them by breaking them up into smaller pieces and using them as an all-natural fertilizer for your garden.

Here are some tips to extend the life of your MEC pots and pans:

1. Cook at low heat settings:
   MEC functions best at a low heat setting, converting the heat into an even far-infrared heat. Because of MEC’s heat retention, your pots & pans can cook at a low heat setting & meals will be ready in the same time or less, compared to high heat conventional cookware! Exposure to high heat settings can risk cracks & other damage to the cookware.
2. Instead of oil, use water before cooking:
   MEC becomes naturally non-stick with use; as a result, less oil is needed overall in the cooking process. As a comparison, oil is to metals as water is to clay. Always use half the amount of oil required in a conventional recipe, and you can add in the oil towards the end of the cooking process. This will result in healthier meals, because the oil will not be heated and cooking over a long time to break down into trans-fat!
3. Store MEC pots in well-ventilated areas:
   Miriam’s Earthen Cookware thrives in sunlight. Because of the earthen material, it is believed sunlight (or daylight, even) can enhance your cooking experience. You can read more about this phenomenon here: How MEC Increases Vitamin D Levels
   After using your pot, we recommend fully wiping the pot dry and storing it in a ventilated space. Keeping MEC in an enclosed cabinet may not work well; instead, we recommend storing it on a rack, on a windowsill, or on the stove itself. If the pot is not fully dry and stored in a poorly ventilated area, there is a risk of mold growing on the surface of the pot. In the case that mold does grow, it can be safely cleaned off, here’s how: Mold Cleaning Instructions
4. Avoid toxic ingredients:
   Clay naturally tries to remove any toxins when heated, as described here: MEC Toxin Removal
   This process occurs naturally, but the pot walls can end up saturated over time, which can affect its durability & longevity. To avoid this, pick ingredients that have the least amount of toxins possible, like non-processed, organic ingredients. Additionally, the purer the water, the better. Highly processed ingredients like chicken stock can be substituted for healthier ingredients (in this case, water can be used instead of stock, and you will still get a naturally created flavorful broth).

Choosing healthy ingredients benefits both the pots longevity and your own health, too!

Although dishwasher safe, hand washing recommended. They’re easy to clean because of the naturally non-stick nature of MEC clay. It’s best to avoid soaps, as they are toxic. To wash: get the pot completely wet, sprinkle baking soda, scrub and rinse off. Wipe it with a cotton towel/rag and put it away to dry.

Food very rarely sticks to the bottom. If you’ve accidentally overcooked or burned food, pour some warm water in the pot, sprinkle baking soda and let it sit for 10 minutes, scrub clean — food would come off the bottom easily — rinse and dry. For tough to clean spots, you can use a scrubber, there is no coating so no fear of scraping any harmful enamels or glazes.

In most cases, it is very easy to clean MEC pots and pans, but on rare occasions, some mistakes happen. Here are ways to handle the cleaning process in these instances:

1. How to clean mold, if you accidentally create the conditions for it to grow:

Mold or mildew occurs only in the presence of organic matter (food) and moisture, in most cases this happens if the pot was not cleaned and dried properly before storing away in an enclosed space (like inside cabinets). Or if room/kitchen is more humid than usual or lack of adequate air circulation in the room. This mold/mildew is not toxic, appears only on the surface, and is easy to clean off.

Wash the pot thoroughly with some vinegar or lemon juice. Scrub this mixture throughout the walls of the pot, rinse, drain water, and wipe with cotton towel to dry it out. Following this, dry it out on stove-top, on low setting with lid off, till the rim is warm to the touch. Turn stove off and let the pot cool down before putting it away in an open space. This should help get rid of the mold and prevent it from growing again.

If pot needs to be stored, place them where they can receive some sunlight — direct or indirect is fine. When wet, always wipe pot down with cotton cloth before storing. Store pot and lid separately. Detailed storage instructions can be found here: Storage Instructions.

2. How to clean the pot if you accidentally cooked meat while the pot is being fully seasoned, and this has left a smell:

When seasoning a new pot, small bits of meat in a soup is fine, but larger chunks of cooked meat can leave a residual smell. To help get this smell out, steam cleaning the pot will help. To do so, first fill the pot 1/4 way up with water. Set the pot on the stove at low heat, cover the lid, and let steam build up for 10 minutes. Add either a a cinnamon stick or a lemon/lime wedge for fragrance. Cover the lid and steam for another 10 minutes on low heat. Turn the stove off, open the lid, and let the water cool down for 10 minutes. Pour the water out while it is still warm.

3. How to clean MEC if you have used too much oil or if yogurt is not setting well:

With MEC, you do not need to use as much oil as a metal pot would require. Using too much oil can be a problem, especially if using on an electric stove while it is still new. Instead, keep in mind that as oil is to metals, water is to clay. Water makes an excellent separator; therefore, not as much oil is required in the beginning of the cooking process. You can absolutely use oil when cooking with MEC, but it is healthier and better tasting when added towards the end. If you have used too much oil and the pot has absorbed this oil (if cooking on an electric stove, you may see some oil seeping through onto the diffuser), here is how you can clean it:

Let the pot air dry for two days, then steam clean using the following method: Add 2-3 cups of water to the pot. Cover it with a lid and heat it on the stove on medium-low for ten minutes, allowing steam to build up inside. Once steam has accumulated, abruptly remove lid — this sudden drop in pressure will extract oil from the pot into the steaming water. Let it continue to cook for 5-10 minutes after this point. Turn stove off, wait ~10 minutes for the water to cool down, then pour it out (do not let it cool down fully, otherwise oil may seep back into the walls). Pour the warm water out.

4. How to clean any burnt/ scorched food:

First, rinse the pot, then fill it with 2-3 cups of warm water from the faucet. Sprinkle baking soda in the pot. Cover and let it sit for 10-15 minutes, then gently (but firmly) scrape the burnt food out with a metal spoon. If this does not get most of the burned food out, then steaming cleaning should help. To do so, add 1-3 cups of water to the pot, then add 1 tsp. of baking soda. Cover the pot with the lid and heat on the stove on medium-low until steam builds up on the inside. Remove lid and scrape the burnt food using a metal spoon. Cook for 5 more minutes with lid off. Turn the stove off and let the water cool down to a warm temperature for 10 minutes, then pour it out. Apply some oil to the affected area of the pot, and let it sit for a day before using it again.

5. How to clean the pot when you see toxins leaching from food to the outside of the pot:

After addressing the cause of the toxins appearing on the outside of the pot (you can read more on the causes here), you can clean the pot using this method:

Wash the pot thoroughly and steam water in it without lid. Typically, the pot pushes out toxins, but when steaming water with the lid open it will pull-in anything in the walls. After steaming for 10 minutes, turn stove off and let pot cool down until water is warm. Pour water out and wipe dry with cotton cloth. Set it aside to air dry for about 10-15 minutes before using again.

6. How to clean leftover yogurt residue:

After making yogurt in your MEC pot, you can let it stay for as long as it’s finished. While cleaning the pot for the next batch, you may see some residue that is not coming off easily. To help get this off, apply some warm water on the spot that is hard to clean. Rub the affected areas with your hands, let it sit for 5 minutes, then scrape the residue off with a metal spoon.

To help minimize this in the future, swish around a small amount of water in the pot and pour it out before adding milk to create your next batch.

7. I accidentally used soap to clean my pot, is this going to be an issue?

As long as you did not let the soap sit in the pot for too long (over 10 minutes), this should not be a problem. Rinse the pot thoroughly, then you can use it for cooking. In the instance you let soap sit too long, rinse the pot thoroughly and steam 1-2 cups of water in the pot for 15 to 20 minutes. After this, you can continue to use the pot for cooking.

While hand washing is recommended, you can wash them in a dishwasher with a cold or warm setting (not hot). We do not recommend using soap, because it is usually toxic. You can sprinkle some baking soda in the pots before putting them inside your dishwasher, with no need to add soap. The dishwasher setting should be set on “rinse”.