We recently brought a set of plates, bowls, and cups that looked like a solid set crockery (not expensive but not dirt cheap either). It turns out they are super crappy and light weight, they now have more chips in a couple of weeks than our previous crockery had in many years of use (most of the pieces now have a chip somewhere).
They’ll need replacing but don’t want to repeat the mistake. What is a objective measure I can look for in the description to ensure the new set are not so light weight and prone to chipping? Analogous to “thread count” in bedding, something like density? Or a particular material? (i.e. at least X% material Y)
I don’t think there is one. Pottery is a combination of many things; clay body, skill of the potter, glaze, and firing temperature control. There’s no one metric that sums up all of that into a measure of quality. Besides there are many characteristics that people may want in pottery that are in conflict; light weight, delicate, able to handle temperature changes, resisting chipping, heft. You need to know what you are looking for and get pottery that matches those characteristics.
BTW, thread count is a lousy way to judge quality linen.
What do you want? Stoneware such as Pfaltzgraff? I’ve had mine for almost 30 years. A few chips, very little breakage. They are heavy, though.
As people up-thread have said, there are a few factors at play - the basic distinction between earthenware and stoneware is a useful proxy for durability. It usually involves different clay, but also higher firing temperatures to produce a denser, heavier, non-porous ceramic body that’s usually more durable. Porcelain is a variant of stoneware that uses specific clay, and is very dense, but usually made thin so the items may be lighter overall. If something is described as slip-cast its a cheap form of moulding and often not very robust, often used for brightly painted tourist wares.
Unfortunately these terms are not always used in descriptions, but notes like ‘suitable for commercial use’ or ‘dishwasher-safe’ hint at durability.
Most food ceramic is glazed, often to protect the decoration. A poorly applied glaze can chip like crazy on even a solid piece of pottery.
My son works in pottery/ceramics, although not dinnerware. He says that unless you can actually see a serious flaw, there’s no way to tell how durable something is. He says your best bet is to buy from a recognized manufacturer and hope for the best.
I’ve been using the same Corelle dishes for 25 years. They are lightweight, break only if you drop them on a hard tile floor, microwavable, and only have one chip in the whole set.
Corelle is glassware, not ceramic.
I mentioned this topic to my husband and he mentions that sometimes he thinks it would be nice to get new plates, etc., when then these break.
There are two problems. He doesn’t know what he would prefer and there’s not enough breakage to justify getting new plates, etc.
So that’s one benefit of things breaking. I sometimes think it would be fun to have something that’s a bit more colorful. My friend got Fiestaware in red and black and it’s available in quite a few other colors. Either that, or go to a second hand shop and just choose pieces that I like, not worrying about matching. And then the cost is also not a big issue.
True but, when they do break, they really explode. Tiny little slivers of glass for days.
I’ve mostly bought porcelain from brands I’ve heard of, and that’s worked well for me. The dishes we got 30 years ago are faded, but mostly still whole and unchipped. The stuff we bought 10 years ago still looks new.
I also have some Corelle ware, which is light, thin, microwave and dishwasher safe, rarely chips, and if you drop a piece, OMG there are shards of glass everywhere.
I have the really basic dishes from IKEA–they’re sturdy, have taken some drops without incident and the bowls are actually deep and hold a dinner’s amount of stew or stirfry, that’s a huge plus for me. I think I paid like twenty bucks for a set of six and they come in a good range of colors–mine are a deep plum. They’re heavy, that’s the only downside. And I don’t worry about breakage because hey, IKEA. Mugs though, I just get whatever mismatchy ones I find congenial in thrift stores because I like that kind of Boho chic thing.
I had Corelle in a light pattern and never had it grenade on me but dayum, did it stain. Ended up dumping it just because it got unsightly over the years.
I’ve never had stains on my Corelle dishes, at least nothing that didn’t come out after washing them. And, as said, they’re lightweight and thin. So a stack of eight or twelve plates takes up less space than the same number of stoneware plates. And looking in Amazon, they have various Corelle dinnerware sets, including one with 38 pieces (twelve each of dinner plates, salad plates and bowls along with two platters) for about $120. I think that’s quite reasonable. But if you don’t care about having matching dishes, just go to a thrift store and buy whatever they have.
I definitely did like the lightness and thinness of them but I would never pick another white/pattern in Corelle. The staining was concerning for sure. The other quibble I had with them is the size and shape of the bowls–too shallow, spilled easily and transmitted heat too much to make it comfortable to hold a bowl of soup. I like really deep round bottom bowls and Corelle doesn’t seem to make those.
They do. Usually open stock. Many colors, patterns, up to 22ozs. Listed as cereal bowls
https://www.corelle.com/products/8731/soup--cereal-bowls?sort_by=price&sort_order=ASC
I have also seen this size Corelle bowl open stock on the shelf at Target but their supply is hit or miss.
That is the first time though I have heard of Corelle staining and I have used it or it’s precursor Corningware for 47+ years. I would check with customer service about that. Hard water film that is deposited and it absorbs food stains? Curious.
See now, the only one of those with what I would consider to be the “right” shape is the 28 oz bowl. The IKEA Fargrik bowls have an excellent height to width ratio and the bowls fit the hand really well. They’re very stable, super hard to tip over. I have pets, this is a big concern.
I have no idea what made those plates and bowls stain like that–Portland has naturally soft water, it’s basically rainwater most of the year and the plates discolored at different times and apparently for different reasons. Even the ones that weren’t specifically stained just ended up with a dingy look after a while. I definitely would avoid the light colored dishes if I were to get another set.
Here’s the ones I had–I ended up throwing out the entire set after quite a few years of use because they just looked awful.
Thanks for the tip about ikea dinnerware. I usually like their stuff but I never would have thought to look there. Glad to know because getting close to replacing my plates and theirs look like good finds.
I have the same issue with pets and needing bowls with heavy bases or else I’m chasing the bowls all over the kitchen. Plus everybody know you’re supposed to eat spaghetti out of a big, deep bowl.
I eat a LOT of Asian food and everyone knows it’s SO much easier to eat rice and noodle dishes out of a big bowl with chopsticks. The Fargrik dishes are a little heavy, that’s the only quibble I have with them but in every respect they’re quite perfect, especially from a price standpoint. Can’t beat IKEA prices, and if you do break stuff it’s really easy to replace what you need to. I don’t think they’ve changed a thing about that line of dishes aside from occasional changes in color over the years.
That’s the same set/pattern I’ve had for over 20 years. I’ve never had a stain or discoloration on them. They still look brand new.
I must have gotten the bad batch made when everyone was hung over then!
Maybe. I also have white corelle plates that are 30 years old and look fine. I guess I don’t use them every day (I prefer the porcelain plates I bought from Crate & Barrel)
but my mom is still using some that must be 50 years old and looks fine.