These days I have a never-ending source of day-old bread
from the local supermarkets, so I am not doing much baking.
So I will probably not do what I propose here. But some
one or more could try it and comment on the results.

1st, since I worry about burning my fingers, and about
wasting gas (or electricity) trying to get a pot real hot, I would
seriously consider rising sourdough in a room-temperature
pot, for a full or nearly full rise, and then putting the pot in an
oven, starting cold.

That is not too original an idea, because it is pretty much what
the pot-lugging trailside sourdough bakers from early r.f.s. days
used to do, except for the substitution of an oven for a pit
filled with hot coals.

2nd, were I an ambitious entrepreneur, I would start designing
an electric baking pot. I guess I'd need some coiled nichrome
heater wire, some fiber-glass fabric and insulation, and
something fireproof for an outer cover, not to mention an iron
pot to start. For the top crust, maybe a way to blow in
superheated air sometime before the cycle completes.

If nobody picks up on that, and I don't get around to it, maybe
I will discuss it with George Foreman, so that the homeless
people in the tunnels will get a way to do sourdough. No
doubt the commercial model would have a Teflon surface,
with possibly a simulated basket-weave texture. George
knows how to do that kind of stuff. He is one smart guy.

--
Dicky

P.S. To the several people who are still requoting
whole articles over terse replies:

Please don't do it any more.

Figure out how to delete irrelevant material so that most
of the > >> >>> >>>> goes away.

(You can say "snip snip" if you feel guilty, or
"> [ ... ]" like I do sometimes.)

--
-d.