Bisque ware

The Priberam dictionary records chacota, in ceramics, as the first firing of pottery that is going to be glazed; the word also means mockery, so context matters. English calls this stage biscuit or bisque, and the second firing the glost or glaze firing. A piece that has merely dried is not yet biscuit, although the English word is sometimes used loosely for it. Today biscuit firing is usually at least 1000 °C, and it makes permanent chemical and physical changes that leave a much harder, more resilient object.

What defines bisque is that it stays porous. A porosity generally above 15% lets it absorb water from a glaze suspension, so a dipped piece can be dry enough to handle within seconds. The firing temperature tunes this: a low bisque is typical of pottery, while a vitrifying bisque is used for bone china and some stoneware. In Portuguese tile-making the same object is called biscoito or chacota, the name for a tile that has been fired once and not yet glazed.