Copper pots and kitchenware are beautiful to have in your home, but is it easy to care for and cook with? Check out these tips to learn how to cook in copper and enter to win beautiful copper cookware.
We love the look of copper, but copper pots and pans can be more than just decorative. Don’t let a copper cookware simply hang on the walls of your kitchen, but never touching your stove.
For solid tips to cooking with copper, we checked in with Jim Hamann, a restorer of old-fashioned copper wares. The Cornell grad is known for his tinning craft and even has his work in use in top kitchens around the country, like Eleven Madison Park. To market his passion, Jim has founded East Coast Tinning where he is dedicated to restoring heirloom copper ware. Eventually, Jim began creating new items meant to last just as long as their vintage counterparts.
Head over to Jim’s website to see more vintage copper cookware and for help fixing up pots you already have.
Be sure to enter to win some copper cookware of your own above and read on for tips and characteristic.
Have Everything Ready
Copper is well known as the high performance metal on which to cook. Get ready for slightly faster cooking times and a more consistent result due to the even heating and quick response of copper. Because the pan will heat quicker and cook faster, be sure to have your ingredients ready to go!
Cook with Med-Hi Heat
If you are new to copper, try using Med-Hi heat as a maximum for a few cooking sessions. Copper heats up very quickly. Using a Med-Hi heat will help you learn the idiosyncrasies of your new cookware without worry.
Use Wooden or Silicone Utensils
The tin lining of copper cookware is a soft. To avoid scratching the beautiful tin cooking surface with
steel utensils, opt for wooden or silicone instead.
Do Not Preheat Copper Pots
Since copper conducts heat so well, it heats up very quickly. The tin lining can and will melt in as little a minute. So – if you are going to turn on the flame, have SOMETHING in the pan, even if it is only your olive oil or butter. If the phone rings and you get distracted, the oils in the pan will burn and smoke BEFORE the tin lining melts, so it will be protected.
Skip Searing in Copper Pans
The tin lining of copper pots melt at only about 450 degrees F. To sear meats at high heat, choose cast iron, aluminum, or stainless steel cookware.
Copper in the oven? No problem!
Even at a high temperatures, using your copper in the oven is not a problem. The liquid water in the food will keep the temperature of the pan at 212degrees F (the boiling point of water) until all the water is gone.
Skip the Scrubbing
For foods cooked onto the pan, try filling the pot with water and a bit of dish soap then simmer for 15 minutes. You’ll be amazed how easily it cleans up. For additional assistance, use a bamboo scraper. The bamboo is strong enough to help clean the pan, but isn’t hard enough to scratch the tin. Less elbow grease and less wear on the tin!
Polish Often
If you don’t polish for 6 months, you’ll be in for a polishing workout. Polish after each use and it will be fast and easy.
Here’s a chef’s secret recipe for a food-based copper polish. Make a batch of the following and keep it in a container under the sink. A quick polish after washing will take about 30 seconds extra time:
Dissolve
1 T salt in
1/2 cup white vinegar
Add enough flour to make a thin paste (think Elmer’s Glue consistency)
After washing the pan, dip a moist paper towel in the polish and wipe on the copper (30sec). Wash off with soap & water, then dry well to prevent water spots.
Can’t stand polishing? Don’t stress!
Copper retains its heat transfer characteristics even when it is not looking its best. That soft penny copper tarnish is a great look too. There is nothing in the equations of heat transfer that depend on the “polish” of the copper.
Don’t Hang Copper Above the Stove
The steam and grease spatter will make a mess of your gorgeous pans and make polishing a REAL chore. Hang them away from the stove or over an island.
Tin Lining Changes — It’s Ok
The tin lining will get darker and change color depending on what you cook in the pan. Just let it go. Resist the urge to scour it shiny again, as you’ll be scouring away a bit of that tin lining at the same time.
I I like it
My great-aunt had copper pots and they always hung in the same spot on the wall in her kitchen. I told her once that I would love to have them someday. She is now in a memory care facility at 98 years old and I was given her copper pots. I just used the sauce pan for the first time today to make turmeric paste. I have a sauce pan, a smaller sauce pan that looks like you would melt butter in it, what looks like an grautin (?) pan and a little frying pan about big enough to cook a fried egg in. These pans are filled with love and memories for me!!! I feel very lucky to have them.
If I clean the fry pan lining a bit too hard its showing a bit of cooper colour would it be safe to use
i’ve used Jim’s services on my copper collection. he is very good at his craft.
Thank you for the tips.
Will keep in mind if i find an older copper pot at an antiques place.
I arrived here searching /looking for reason eggs and copper pans do so well together.
I read something years ago about eggs and real copper having a chemical ( more magical) reaction to each other that was helping eggs cook better in a copper pan.
Havent been able to find that info again.
Had been watching moonshiners and how copper stills work together with the mash, i tried a Belmont Farms Kopper Kettle Bourbon (86 proof) and found that to be a very smooth taste. Prob lower proof , but was very good in my opinion.
Thanks again for your site!
Onto another search.
i have an old solid copper pan which is quite thick. any tips on how to cook with it please? also any problems to avoid? thank you in advance. i haven’t said this before as i have only just obtained the pan
Thank you for this article. It will really help me maintain my new copper saute pan. I wish I could get a whole set but they are just to darn expensive. — https://goo.gl/CyHjd5
Does cleaning copper with salt (iodized) and vinegar or lemon juice produce a toxic chemical reaction ?
Is it okey to cook curries in copper pans?
Please respond
Great thanks for all the info , I have just bought some second hand copper pots , they looked awful really tarnished on the tin , after boiling with baking soda and plain salt and then dipping a foil in , they came up lovely not brand new but 100 times better .
Can’t wait to use them :-)
It’s great to have your advice for Copper Cookware. Maybe another good way to clean this is to use white vinegar, salt, and hot water. There are many who try to clean up the dishwasher which is a very wrong method. Because it causes its color to be damaged and the stains fall. Overall I think the Advice of HONEST COOKING will the best practice for cleaning the Copper kitchenware.
Question. My first time.e using my copper pot i put the lid on while the soup was simmering and there was a thin film of tin around the edges of the broth? Is this normal at first? And is it dangerous to consume?