OT: cleaning copper pans?

Tomatoes clean copper and brass! You can use a fresh tomato that you chop up and spread the juices/pieces over and then rinse, or ordinary catsup from a bottle. (My sister always keeps the catsup packages they drop in the sack at fastfood drive-throughs, and uses them for her copper pans.) I haven't tried it, but am sure that canned tomatoes and tomato paste would work, too. If there are some stubborn spots you can just keep up with the catsup on those every day or so, or use a commercial cleaner.

There's a note taped to the shelf where our copper bowls live. It says: copper + cream of tartar = green. I believe it's a reminder not to add cream of tartar to eggs when whipping them for meringue. Just FWIW. Polly

"Mary" Tomatoes clean copper and brass! You can use a fresh tomato that you

Wow, never heard of that before!

I'll give that a try, DH will wonder what I'm preparing for a meal ;P) My DDs will as well.....hehehe

Now I know that catsup is meant to go with everything!

Do you think that it would help clean off 40yrs worth of grease of a tiled wall in my kitchen as well? It is sooooo bad.....the white tiles are orange, I'm sure underneath the grease the tiles are protected by it all.

Janner France

On Fri, 27 Aug 2010 07:27:24 -0500, Janner wrote (in article ):

I'd have to agree with a paste of lemon juice and salt. But depending on how badly it is tarnished you may have to use a copper polish like Wright's.

Maureen

I discovered the tomato cleaning way accidentally. I left an old RevereWare pot -- the ones with the copper bottoms --- sitting on a dish with tomato sauce on it in the sink to be washed. When I finally got around to doing the dishes, the copper bottom was absolutely new-looking! Haven't scrubbed a copper bottom or any other copper since. Just use ketchup and let it sit for a few minutes.

KT. in MI

I use a brand called Red Bear, with a soft, fluffy polishing buffer for my electric drill, on my copper wash tub - works a treat!

N.

Duraglit on the outside, then gool old fairy Liquid to wash that off. It should be tinned on the inside: sort of silvery colour. if it isn't, don't cook in it..

You USED to be able to get them re-tinned, but I have no idea if that's still possible, or what it would cost.

I cleaned one that I hoped was copper but it was so tarnished it could have been anything! I used Duraglit brass and copper cleaner - the impregnated cotton-wooly stuff in a tin and it came up like a dream (and it was copper!)

Don't know if they have it in France though. The inside never did shine though, probably just good old soapy water and a brush would be better inside anyway.

Whatever cleaner you use wear rubber gloves or you will end up with black fingertips and nails which will take as much cleaning as the pan.

Sally at the Seaside ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~uk

Janner wrote:

Ah, so its tin on the inside of mine, not that I use it for cooking - far too big.

Sally at the Seaside ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~uk

Kate XXXXXX wrote:

Just wondering now, if it is copper on the inside, which I suspect, why shouldn't I cook in it? The only copper preserving pans that I've seen for sale here all have copper insides ie not tinned. Those are modern ones. I've never seen a lined preserving pan.

Janner France

Lots of info on this site. Copper is essential for health, but like many things, too much can be toxic. If you scroll down, you'll find a list of diseases and symptoms that might be related to too much copper.

The c>Just wondering now, if it is copper on the inside, which I suspect, why

Thanks, just had a quick look, very interesting. I only plan to use the pan occasionally to make preserves and not all the time. We also use a water filter, so never drink direct from the tap, so we're probably not getting that much copper in our diet.

Janner France

Vinegar and salt works, too... or vinegar/salt/flour paste:

1 tsp salt, 1 c vinegar, enough flour to make a paste. in metric, 5 ml salt by volume, 250 ml vinegar, and some flour.

Always rinse *really* well with plain water after using anything with salt in it on copper. There's a problem called "bronze disease" that can affect copper, too:

If you want really, really shiny, you can follow the vinegar and salt or lemon and salt or ketchup up with jeweler's rouge.

If you're not going to be cooking in it, a thin coat of microcrystalline wax works well to keep the bright color.

Kay

Hi from that ' man & her ' in Chester UK

Di went to a local super market Friday & picked up ' Barkeepers friend '

We had been told it was good for cleaning stainless steel sinks / oven fronts.

On reading the pack found OK on copper, so I tried it on 3 very small copper

sauce pans, very small amount on a damp rag, wiped on gently & rubbed

off after 60 secs later, most of the tarnish was gone with no scratch marks.

Did the same again pans now as bright as the day they arrived 30 years ago !

No black fingers / bad smells ( I get a form of hay fever from ' Duraglit ' )

Contains Citric acid ( just like lemon juice ) Far cheaper than buying a fresh

Lemon each time you have a cleaning job.

All the years wasted cleaning copper & brass & this stuff has been around in

the USA all the time !

Think it has been sold under the name ' Shiny sinks '

Yes the kitchen sink is now shiny bright.

Mike & Di in Chester UK

Ah. You just mentioned my absolutely favorite best wonderful cleaning friend. A few times, just a few, we have petrified one of our very expensive stainless steel pots. BKF has brought them back to gorgeous. It takes the gross uglies out of the bathroom. It's even wonderful for drinking glasses that the dishwasher has frosted. BIL has a company that does professional cleaning for new homes and the wealthy. He mentioned to me that it would work wonders for my sink. I explained that I use my sink. He can polish it if he wants to. Polly

" snipped-for-privacy@nospambtopenworld.com" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@bt.com...

Oh Polly!

We ARE sisters under the skin!

Until about three years ago, our kitchen had a belfast sink. Yes, one of those pot things with BRASS taps and waste. Our kitchen was a job lot when a local kitchen showroom closed down.

I have always considered that life was too short to Brasso (or indeed BKF, which I also love) the drains and taps!

DS sat on the work surface and cracked it to the point we needed a new sink. We now have stainless steel... and a LIFE!

Nel (Gadget Queen) who hates cleaning for the sake of it.

(I hit send before I finished, sorry)

The other good stuff for cleaning brass, copper, BRONZE and pewter (not the valuable stuff that should NEVER be cleaned)

is the stuff you get from vehicle shops that they use on chrome. Mine is called Autosol, but I've seen it under other names, such as Impeca.

Wow! Just checking the anme of the other stuff and I thought my tarte tatin dish had seen better days (it lives on the wall in my kitchen between feasts) The lemon juice and salt method is rather startling! Instant bright. I've washed it thoroughly,now. I hope that stuff doesn't burn right through! the tomato pur=E9e didn't seem to add much to the mix, but I dabbed lemony paper towel into the salt pig and hey presto! I can see my ugly mug in that copper bottom.

Now that's magic!

Nel =3DD (Gadget Queen) Now on a brasscleaning mission...

Wow, have cleaned the preserving pan.

Used lemon juice and salt and then washed, let ketchup soak in overnight, washed again. Again with the lemon and salt, but it is now gleaming.... DH can't believe it is the same pan.

Should have worn gloves, but hate them, so my nails are a little green!!!! But my pan looks new and it looked so far beyond being cleaned to this level. Wouldn't be nervous of buying old copper if this is how well it cleans up.

Thanks again. Oh yes have been searching the house for copper to clean, very therapeutic!!!

Janner France