Of all places, the oven is where ceramics should be comfortable, because that’s where they were formed, but terra cotta fails time and time again. The reason is that liquid seeps into its pores and then expands into steam when heated, turning the pore into an exploding micro-crack that eventually links up with other micro-cracks like tributaries of a river, and finally erupts on the surface of the terra cotta dish, spelling an end not just to the dish but, as often as not, to the meal within it, too.
