So… what about that number 2 Pewter Cauldron in Harry Potter?

So… what about that number 2 Pewter Cauldron that J. K. Rowling specifies that the students at Hogwarts buy for their classes?
Are you shopping for a cauldron? Cauldrons have been sold by numbered sizes for many years in a system that is both orderly and practical. From tiny enough for incense to large enough to feed a crowd, cauldrons come in every size imaginable and that size is determined by capacity, the width and height and weight.

As you can see from the chart below a Number 2 cauldron would be an excellent size for the beginning student but it does seem a bit heavy to carry around. Perhaps they only carried them to Potions class.

A cauldron is nothing more than an iron pot that usually has three legs. Anything with three legs stands without wobbling better than anything with four legs. Cauldrons were stood among the coals of a fire in a fireplace and were moved around in and out of the heat as needed by using a pot hook. Sometimes they had lids but often the lids have gotten lost as the years went by. This style of cooking pot was widely used for centuries before the modern oven was invented. It is still popular among campers, reenactors and groups making apple butter or Brunswick stew.

Pewter would usually have too low a melting point to be used to make cooking pots but we would guess that the addition of additional metals would make the cauldron harder and its melting point higher. Either that or the cauldrons sold in Diagon Alley are magical – or both. Of course Neville Longbottom did have a habit of melting his cauldrons in potions class so perhaps he should have been instructed to buy an iron replacement cauldron.

You can shop for cauldons at https://www.magicwicca.com/cauldrons/cooking-cauldrons.html?page=all

Cauldron Size Chart: