A failed bread in a commercial pot

Hey bakers,
I have been at my mom's this last week and baked bread three times. I struggled to find a pot to bake in. I tried a vertical porcelain crock first and made a can-shaped rye. Then I tried one of mom's corning ware baking dishes--too wide-- and made a low flat rye. Tasty, rustic, but not a great shape. So I envy the lovely round loaves you are making.
Anyway, we ran out of flour and my mom's boyfriend brought over the flour he had in his home. I tried an all white loaf. It did not rise well. I was running out of time so I tried to bake it last night in a smaller corning ware baking dish. These are the squared ones with glass lids. As I was putting the dough in the hot pot the lid slipped. I wisely did not reach to catch it (avoiding burning my hand) as the lid slipped to the floor and shattered into a million shards of glass. So, after an hour of floor cleaning, I ended up baking it in a not preheated pot under less than ideal conditions.
We could barely cut into the loaf this morning, it was hard and heavy. I looked at the flour bag to find it was "self rising" which means it had salt and baking soda in it. Yuck. It was salty like biscuits. We tossed it and left for the airport. (Rich and I will be in Culebra this week)
So I am more convinced of the value of these baking pots.
Keep on baking. I am enjoying and learning from the feedback and love knowing my pots are in your hands.