I must confess that it took watching the film "Julie and Julia" for me to fall in love with copper cookware. "How sad", you must be thinking. But when you see Julia Child gently, lovingly, cooking her famous Beef Bourguignon recipe, you know you must have copper cookware. She's flouncing around her kitchen, she's confident, she's in love with her husband. Copper cookware probably provides all of those attributes in any aspiring chef. You can't stop thinking about copper cookware. You long to live in France. You stare at whatever you cook with, as if it were a traitor in your own home.
The story of my pots and pans is a sad story really. When Drew and I got married, he had a non-stick stainless steel set. The pots were wonderful. Until we read up on non-stick cookware and how it would probably kill us. And, until all the "non-stick coating" started flaking off in our food. "Did you add pepper to the Mac and cheese, honey?" Ummmm..... no. Time to say goodbye. Though I will say, those were very dark days for me. Culinary speaking. So any evidence needed to be destroyed.
Then, my darling mother-in-law gave me an 8 piece set of simple stainless steel pots and pans for Christmas one year. I loved them. I still have most of them. Key word: 'most'. You see, my very savory and savvy husband was doing some grilling and the soft-handles on a few sauté pans melted into my grill. Tip of the day, your grill can reach temperatures above 500 degrees so be careful what utensils you place on the grates. Very, very sad day. So I started pricing out replacement stainless steel pans for my melted set. $50 dollars a pan, at the cheapest, for stainless steel. Then there was copper cookware replacements. A 12 piece set of copper cookware at Williams and Sonoma is $2,800. I'm not joking. So the dreams were smashed and I made my heart move on.
So a few weeks ago I was browsing eBay and found the most beautiful 8 piece set of solid copper cookware you've ever seen. Price? The set was $118. GASP. That's an insane price my friends. Insane. I called Drew immediately. I told him I loved him. I told him he was my soul mate and the chef of my dreams. I told him I'd be the best sous chef he'd ever seen, if he only would consider buying me this beautiful set of copper cookware.
A few days ago, a lovely large box was on my doorstep. It didn't have Amazon Prime printed on it. I was fully intrigued. Upon opening the box, all dreams were restored! There in the bubble wrap, was the 8 piece set of copper cookware. Christmas had come early. And the chef of my dreams, had prevailed.
Now, mind you, this is eBay so one knows these are at least used, and at most, vintage. So I set to work to return them to their beautiful copper color.
Feast your eyes, my loves. Here they are pictured with some rosemary from my garden, after restoration.
For Copper Restoration you will Need:
Salt
White Vinegar
A scouring pad
Sprinkle salt on your copper pot. Then mist on the pure white vinegar. Immediately you will see the copper changing color.
Now use your scouring pad to gently scrub-in the salt/vinegar mixture.
Here is one of the pans right after the mixture had been applied, but before I scoured. See how the copper has changed color?
Finally I gave them a good old fashion scrub down in some soapy dish water.
Perfect! Even Julia Child would be proud!
If you have some copper cookware laying around that is about to get refinished, or even just beautiful cookware you love to use, tag us in your Instagram picture @thebirchwoodblog! Maybe your guilty pleasure is vintage pyrex, or red and white enamelware, or just really pretty stainless steel cookware filled with yummy recipes! We'd love to see what y'all cook with!
Love Y'all!
Ashley