reid@glacier.ARPA (Brian Reid) (02/09/86)
I like copper pans, and have a lot of them. I'm too busy to clean them as often as I would like. A few days ago a friend came over for dinner and felt compelled to help wash dishes afterwards. She took it upon herself to clean a copper saucepan. I offered her my copper cleaner, but she wanted to use ketchup instead. This woman is strange and beautiful and mysterious and I thought that the ketchup was just part of either the strangeness or the mystery, so I didn't take it very seriously. But wow, did that ketchup ever do a good job of getting the pan clean! It certainly worked better than any brand of commercial copper cleaner I have seen. She said she'd discovered it once when making ketchup-like sauce in a copper pan and having it boil over. Anyhow, I've experimented a little bit, and o, mirabile dictu, ketchup is by far the best copper cleaner I have ever used. I threw out my Wenol and Rotebjahr, which had been the mainstays of my copper-cleaning arsenal, and now I use Heinz 57. -- Brian Reid decwrl!glacier!reid Stanford reid@SU-Glacier.ARPA
cmpbsdb@gitpyr.UUCP (Don Barry) (02/10/86)
The cleaning action is due to the acetic acid in the ketchup. It will be
cheaper and easier to simply use a vinegar-moistened cloth to remove
overt tarnish. Various cleaners containing thiourea will work even better,
removing tarnish in an instant. But the point behind the abrasive copper
cleaners is the polishing action, which a liquid cannot provide. The
shine will be restored by removing the tarnish, but not the sheen.
You also might try ammonia - it will remove tarnish without etching the
metal slightly as acidic media will.
--
Don Barry (Chemistry Dept) CSnet: cmpbsdb%gitpyr.GTNET@gatech.CSNET
Georgia Institute of Technology BITNET: CMPBSDB @ GITVM1
Atlanta, GA 30332 ARPA: cmpbsdb%gitpyr.GTNET%gatech.CSNET@csnet-relay.ARPA
UUCP: ...!{akgua,allegra,amd,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!gitpyr!cmpbsdbreid@glacier.ARPA (Brian Reid) (02/11/86)
In article <1365@gitpyr.UUCP> cmpbsdb@gitpyr.UUCP (Don Barry) writes: >The cleaning action is due to the acetic acid in the ketchup. It will be >cheaper and easier to simply use a vinegar-moistened cloth to remove >overt tarnish. Various cleaners containing thiourea will work even better, >removing tarnish in an instant. Cleaners seem to be exempt from ingredient labeling requirements, so I don't know which commercial cleansers have thiourea and which ones don't. I have just performed three experiments with ketchup, vinegar, Wenol brand copper cleaner, and Twinkle brand copper cleaner. Summary: ketchup is the clear winner. Experiment 1: I took the lid from my copper frypan and covered half of it with Heinz ketchup (about 2 tablespoons thereof), and wiped half of it with Heinz distilled vinegar. Because the ketchup is a paste and the vinegar is a liquid, it was pretty difficult to keep the vinegar still for very long, but I brushed a fresh batch of vinegar on with a paper towel about every 30 seconds. Because of the runoff, this consumed about 8 tablespoons of vinegar over the 5-minute test period. After 5 minutes of this I rinsed the lid in the sink. The side on which I used the vinegar was essentially untouched--virtually all of its tarnish was still there. The side on which I wiped the ketchup was completely clean, save for a few swirl marks where the ketchup had not been thick enough. Experiment 2: I took the bottom of the same pan and made three wide stripes on it. The first stripe I covered with Wenol, the second with Twinkle, and the third with Heinz ketchup. I waited 5 minutes. The ketchup and the Twinkle both produced good results; the Wenol was better than the vinegar had been, but not much better. Certainly not worth using. Twinkle does have a fine abrasive powder in it, so as a final test I tried making a mixture of Comet cleanser and ketchup. Yes, folks, I'm not making this up. I stood there at my own kitchen countertop and measured 1/4 cup of ketchup into a bowl, and then shook about 3 tablespoons of Comet into the ketchup (bletch!). I stirred the mixture well, and then did the following experiment. Experiment 3: I pulled another copper pan from my cupboard. Half of it I scrubbed with Twinkle, rubbing well, using the abrasive powders in the Twinkle to rub away at the hard stains. The other half I scrubbed with this revolting mixture of ketchup and Comet cleanser, using a Scotch-brite pad as the applicator. I waited 5 minutes. The ketchup/Comet side was substantially and more uniformly cleaner and shinier than the Twinkle side. Now, about cost-effectiveness. Here are the retail prices (in my local grocery, which is not a discount store). Ketchup $1.53/12 oz 2 tablespoons= 6 cents per cleaning Vinegar $0.95/quart 8 tablespoons= 12 cents per "cleaning" Twinkle $1.74/4 oz about 1/10 jar=17 cents per cleaning Wenol $1.66/2 oz 1/4 oz = 20 cents per cleaning Conclusion: Ketchup is the most cost-effective way of these four to clean copper. Vinegar doesn't work at all, Wenol costs a fortune and doesn't work as well as ketchup, and Twinkle costs about 3 times as much for the same cleaning power. My conclusion from this is that ketchup is not only the best way to clean copper pans, it is also the most cost-effective. If you find that you are unable to bring yourself to do something so wretched as mix ketchup and Comet in a bowl, you can get a similar effect by squirting ketchup on the pan, then shaking Comet on top of it, and stirring it around with a Chore Boy. -- Brian Reid decwrl!glacier!reid Stanford reid@SU-Glacier.ARPA
ark@alice.UucP (Andrew Koenig) (02/12/86)
> Conclusion: > Ketchup is the most cost-effective way of these four to clean copper. > Vinegar doesn't work at all, Wenol costs a fortune and doesn't work as well > as ketchup, and Twinkle costs about 3 times as much for the same cleaning > power. Try a mixture of vinegar and salt. Also, "Cameo" brand copper cleaner works well.
mgh@mtuni.UUCP (Marcus Hand) (02/20/86)
I recall my mother boiling up rhubarb for a rhubarb and orange crumble, or a rhubabr and custard whenever one of her aluminum saucepans showed signs of oxidation (for example, after cooking eggs they go a darkish grey color.) They always come up bright and shiny. -- Marcus Hand (mtuni!mgh)
mj@pur-ee.UUCP (Slartibartfast) (02/24/86)
>I recall my mother boiling up rhubarb for a rhubarb and orange crumble, >or a rhubabr and custard whenever one of her aluminum saucepans showed >signs of oxidation (for example, after cooking eggs they go a darkish >grey color.) They always come up bright and shiny. >-- > Marcus Hand (mtuni!mgh) I don't like to pour water on anybody's fire, but this is worth noting... The reason the pans came up so shiny is because the acid in the food ate away the top layer of aluminum, and guess where that metal ended up. I remember reading somewhere that high dietary levels of aluminum have been linked with depression in some people, along with a note that acid foods should never be cooked in aluminum. On the other hand, I've cooked spanish rice in aluminum, resulting in shiny pans and only minimal suicidal tendencies. :-) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark A. Johnson - Purdue University Department of Electrical Engineering (Department of Redundancy Department) UUCP:..allegra!purdue!pur-ee!mj USPS:411B S. Chauncey, W. Lafayette, IN 47906
mgh@mtuni.UUCP (Marcus Hand) (02/28/86)
In article <3803@pur-ee.UUCP> mj@pur-ee.UUCP (Slartibartfast) writes: >>I recall my mother boiling up rhubarb for a rhubarb and orange crumble, >>or a rhubabr and custard whenever one of her aluminum saucepans showed >>signs of oxidation (for example, after cooking eggs they go a darkish >>grey color.) They always come up bright and shiny. >>-- >> Marcus Hand (mtuni!mgh) > > I don't like to pour water on anybody's fire, but this > is worth noting... The reason the pans came up so shiny > is because the acid in the food ate away the top layer > of aluminum, and guess where that metal ended up. I > remember reading somewhere that high dietary levels of > aluminum have been linked with depression in some people, > along with a note that acid foods should never be cooked > in aluminum. On the other hand, I've cooked spanish rice in > aluminum, resulting in shiny pans and only minimal > suicidal tendencies. :-) > >------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Mark A. Johnson - Purdue University Department of Electrical Engineering > (Department of Redundancy Department) >UUCP:..allegra!purdue!pur-ee!mj USPS:411B S. Chauncey, W. Lafayette, IN 47906 And I always thought I got pissed off because I didn't like rhubarb :-) -- Marcus Hand (mtuni!mgh)