macrakis@harvard.ARPA (Stavros Macrakis) (12/20/84)
I've been very happy with my copper pots, some tin-lined, some nickel-lined, and some stainless-steel lined. They're not obsolete, they're classic! The advantages of copper are 1. Excellent conductivity; 2. Beauty; 3. Sturdiness. By now, everyone on this newsgroup knows about copper's great advantage in conductivity. An old copper pot has a patina and character which you will find in no stainless or Calphalon pot (indeed, with stainless, you get scratches with time which kill its initial gleam, and with Calphalon, various funny non-scratches). I often serve dishes in the copper pots in which I cooked them (sauces in small saucepans; braises in braisiers; sautes in oval saute pans) and find them quite beautiful; this might be claimed of Calphalon, but hardly anything else--and certainly not Farberware! Copper is harder than aluminum, and presumably sturdier, although somehow I doubt my (good) aluminum pots will fall apart long before my grandchildren inherit them. Farberware (ordinary) and the like will, I suspect. The main problems with copper are 1. Loss of lining; 2. Time to polish; 3. Price. The lining is the main problem. It wears out and it discolors. So far, after some years with my pots, I haven't needed to reline; but it costs and is hard to find. Anyway, the NY Times claimed last year that exposed copper in pots will only poison you under very special circumstances (food left standing; highly acid foods). Nickel partly solves the problem (it is harder than tin), and stainless solves it. I prefer the patina of unpolished copper, so I have no problem here. Price is indeed a problem. Good pans should be at least 1.5mm thick, and such pans are fairly expensive. Don't buy thin Made-in-Korea copper; it's cheap but no good for cooking. Copper pots are much cheaper in Europe than here, presumably because they're more common and are marketed for their utility more than their snob value. (This is true, by the way, for almost all cooking equipment these days, given the exchange rates. I bought a Wusthof 10" chef's knife at a kitchen supply store in Brussels (rue du Boucher for those passing through) for about $20 vs. $50-65 here; a mandoline for $40 vs. $90-120.) My most recent copper pots are stainless-lined, which I consider to be the ideal combination. Stainless is almost non-stick, is quite hard, is ... well ... stain-less. Regrettably, one of the major importers (Bourgeat) is closing out its stainless-lined copper line because, they say, cheap thin copper drove them out. Be on the lookout for sales. Don't think that I run an all-copper kitchen! I see no reason to get a copper stockpot or potato-boiling pot or steamer until I'm pretty rich. Aluminum's just fine. And for many recipes, cast iron makes a good skillet and dutch oven. Ceramic and enameled cast iron seem fine for many kinds of slow cooking, especially in the oven. Very cheap thin aluminum is fine for boiling (potatoes, pasta, non-acid vegetables), as long as you realize you'll have to throw it out in a couple of years (and it's not all that cheap). I use a cheap thin small saucepan for toasting spices--the thinness is an advantage here because it stops roasting (and then burning) the instant I take it off the heat. Farberware is fine for most general purposes. But I must disagree with the fellow net-cook who thinks it's good for sauces! Some sauces are very critically dependent on even heat, especially strongly reduced sauces, where you're balancing thickening and reducing against burning and sticking. I go with my best copper saucepan for them. And let's not forget that the purpose of all this (and least, my purpose in all this) is to enjoy cooking and eating more, not to spend the most money, use the latest technology, or humiliate the backwards neighbors (you know, the ones with Revereware).... -- Stavros Macrakis
rcd@opus.UUCP (Dick Dunn) (12/27/84)
> ... > Copper is harder than aluminum, and presumably sturdier,... Careful here. Although aluminum itself may be softer than copper (don't have any materials handbooks handy), the aluminum used for cookware is both alloyed (to increase strength) and surface-hardened (apparently by a process like anodizing) so that it's quite a bit harder than copper. -- Dick Dunn {hao,ucbvax,allegra}!nbires!rcd (303)444-5710 x3086 ...Nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile.