Hi. I have a cute terra cotta garlic container with a lid. I got it many years ago and its home is about 8 inches from my stovetop. You can imagine over all these years how yucky it is - oil spots, scraped off frosting/bread, etc... that has stained it... you get the picture. I haven't ran it through the dishwasher or washed it by hand because it seems like I read on the paper it came with that you can't do that. It's got sentimental value and I don't want to ruin it. It has no paint, glaze or anything ornamental on it and no writing on the bottom.
Now for the question -
Can I put it in the dishwasher? My hubby says yes. (He's been imploring me to clean it for a very long time). I didn't want to do it by hand because I was afraid of leaving uneven water marks on the clay. Howerver, since it's been fired, I would think it would be fine in the dishwasher???
Thanks in advance for the answer/advice. Sorry it's longer than it needed to be.
~L.
I wasn't sure so I consulted Dr. Google. Apparently they can be cleaned by hand.
http://www.howtocleanstuff.net/how-to-clean-terra-cotta-p...
I would do it by hand on warm soapy water.
If I wasn't that attached to it, I'd try the dishwasher.
If it breaks, it's easy enough to replace.
I've washed a few bread baking flower pots this way and they were fine.
Since you are sentimental about it, try hand washing it and let it dry for several days before using it again.
Since it's porous, wash surface gunk off with hot water first, then briefly with hot soapy water, rinse with plain hot water.
It's not used as an actual flower pot (or bird bath) so you don't have some of the sanitizing concerns that those items would have.
I would wash it by hand with only a dishrag, not put into soapy water to sit, to see how it turns out. If it doesn't disintegrate then you know it can be wiped off.
It comes down to this though. If it's too dirty to use it's useless. So washing it by hand shouldn't hurt it. As for putting it in the sink sitting in the dishpan I wouldn't do that unless it was sealed.
If it's straight up terra cotta like you get straight from the store then it won't take water or washing well if you leave the water on it. Terra Cotta is rather porous due to being for plants so it should dry the way it looked before.
To cut Terra Cotta you soak it to get the clay wet then cut it and let it dry again. It doesn't look any different than it did before but it's in a different shape.
I have some books from Hobby Lobby for clay pot crafts and they could be informative.
