Looks like a shiny red glaze on the pottery pieces. I can see it being smooth and non-porous but not non-stick — similar to modern enameled cookware, which is definitely not non-stick. The Romans did have cast iron cookware, though, which naturally and inevitably develops an excellent non-stick surface as it’s cooked with. So they would have had eggs that slid out of the pan but it was more likely to have been on cast iron than this red ceramic material. I would guess that the real virtue of the red pottery was a high degree of uniformity and non-porosity, which would have been ideal for long slow simmering since none of the liquid would have been wicked away through imperfections in the surface.
Says who? Eggs don't stick to the pan if you fry them, as in "to cook with oil".
I fry eggs over low heat on quality bonded stainless steel in plenty of butter. They slide out of the pan and taste wonderful. Cleanup is as easy as with non-stick pans, and mine will last me the rest of my life.
They look great hanging from the pan rack, too.
No, it is matte, not shiny. It is red because the clay-based coating is made from shale, just like bricks, only ground a bit finer and made into a slip which is applied to underlying coarse ceramic by dipping in water-based slip or bu brushing, then subjecting to a glost firing. IIRC
You nailed it for me. Cast iron was the original non-stick cookware. I am a huge Lodge fan, have even done the factory tour, which is only available one week a year.
Though in the Roman era, CI was probably still too expensive for that usage for most, versus usage for military items, transportation (axles and wheel rims and such), building hardware, etc.
Thx.