Methods of producing a ceramic article include heating the ceramic green body containing a quantity of one or more organic materials to extract only a fraction of the organic materials from the ceramic green body by exposing the ceramic green body to a process atmosphere which is heated to a hold temperature of from 225° C. to about 400° C. and has from 2% to 7% O2 by volume of the process atmosphere. The method further includes cooling the ceramic green body to a temperature of below 200° C., exposing the ceramic green body to a higher concentration of O2 than in the process atmosphere of the heating step, and firing the ceramic green body to form the ceramic article. Volatile extraction units for implementing the methods are also described.