Cooking pots or oules
These typical cooking pots are called marmites in French and oules in the Toulousain patois. They were made all over southwestern France during the medieval period, and remained an essential cooking utensil, with little to no modification in their shape, up to the beginning of the 19th century (Arcangeli 2000).
 In the Toulousain area, they usually have two rod section handles, fastened to the lip and to the largest part of the vessel. Their bowl is spherical, with thin walls, and slightly flattened at the base. A spiral shape can be seen inside at the bottom.
A powdered lead glaze was usually sprinkled inside these pots, and can be seen on the flat section of the rim and all over the bottom. This glaze is often yellow, and sometimes green. Streaks of glaze can run down the outside, which have dripped from other vessels during firing.
 Since these cooking pots were made in great quantities by several pottery centers throughout the modern period, the texture and color of their body varied greatly. The body of Giroussens pots was sandy and red, while Cox pots had a smoother, and beige to pink body, with small red inclusions. Marmites came in a wide range of sizes, especially during the later period. Diameters range from 7cm to 30 cm, but average around 20 cm. On colonial sites, cooking pots of various sizes were found for example at the site of Fort Pentagoet in Maine, and at the Perthuis house, place Royale.
In Toulouse, sooting can often be seen on the top third of the pot and on the outside section of the rim, which indicates that lids often covered the pot during cooking. Flat lids with a knob, sometimes equipped with vents, are found in the same ceramic assemblages. Cooking pots also often show sooting on their bottom. Marmites in the Toulousain area were most probably used inside the hearth, near the fire, with a trivet, as many trivets are listed in Toulousain probate inventories, and no other type of wear is visible (Arcangeli 2000). Mousette (1996) also found a engraving showing such use. Their rounded shape allowed for prolonged cooking, e.g. for stewing, but could also sustain high heat. A typical dish of the Toulousain area called cassoulet is a large stew of beans, tomatoes, sausage, duck, pork, or goose fat, and poultry meats. The dish needs to slow-cooked for hours. All of the ingredients necessary for cassoulet appear more frequently at the turn of the 18th century in the Toulousain household inventories (Arcangeli 2000).
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