Cauldron is crafted from seven iron ingots arranged in a U-shape on the crafting grid, yielding one cauldron per recipe — a heavy iron investment justified by the unique fluid-storage role. The block has four discrete fill levels for water (one-third, two-thirds, full, plus empty), one fill level for lava, and one for powder snow. A water bottle, lava bucket, or powder-snow scoop fills it; an empty bucket or bottle drains a portion.

Unique uses include: dyeing leather armour by right-clicking dyed water with the armour piece (the colour transfers), washing dyed banners back to white, removing patterns from banners, extinguishing fire on burning entities (jumping into a water-filled cauldron), and the only renewable lava source in vanilla — a dripstone block with pointed dripstone over a cauldron with lava above slowly fills the cauldron over time. Generated cauldrons appear in witch huts, swamp huts, and igloo basements as part of natural structures, often pre-filled with relevant fluid.