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When food sticks to the inside of your stainless steel pan

By on November 19, 2017 in Care, Tips

Customer Paul writes:

I was wondering if there is a way to cure my frying pans. The food.I cook seems to stick too easy no matter if I use oil or butter in the pan.

We can think of a few things that might be happening.
If you have ever used steel wool, that can leave little bits of itself stuck to the stainless steel and promote food sticking and rust.   Cleaning as outlined below will likely help with this.
If you have hard water, an invisible layer of hard water deposits can definitely cause food to stick.  Give it a good soak in 50% vinegar and water and then scrub the inside thoroughly with a green Scotch Brite pad.
You can also try using Bar Keepers Friend to polish the inside and try to get food to stick less.
Other than that, we just recently wrote a blog post on seasoning stainless steel.  We haven’t had the chance to try it yet, but are really curious if anyone has success with this.
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Should you buy a new set of Revere Ware?

By on November 9, 2017 in Amazon, Ebay, History, Tips

If you’ve read just about anything on our site, you likely know that the quality of today’s Revere Ware pales in comparison to that made in the pre-1968 era.  We’ve heard lots of stories of quality issues like the copper bottom falling off.  But let’s say you don’t care about the quality and just want a set of Revere Ware cookware because you like the look.  Is it cheaper to get a new set, or a used set from eBay.

Here is a new set on Amazon.com.

This set costs $95.55 with free Amazon Prime shipping an option if you are a Prime member.

Here is what we put together from eBay:

4.5 quart Dutch oven with lid: $33 shipped
9″ skillet with lid: $31 shipped
1.5 quart sauce pan with lid: $$20 shipped
1 quart sauce pan with lid: $20 shipped

That gives us a total of $104 shipped.  Withe the tax you’ll likely pay on Amazon.com, and the potential to find better deals on eBay (there are lot of Revere Ware pieces listed at any given time) we’ll call the costs roughly even.

If you wanted to replace all the handles and knobs, that would run you about another $50, although all the items we found on eBay had Bakelite handles and knobs that were in reasonable condition.

If you scoured your local thrift stores, you could likely find all the vintage Revere Ware items for much cheaper, but there is a time cost involved.

It seems to come down to preference – buy a set that will last a few years before it starts falling apart, or buy as set that will likely last many more decades and has a strong history to it.

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The history of Bakelite

By on October 31, 2017 in History

I recently came across this great historical video from 1937 about Bakelite, which, apparently is not pronounced bake-lite, but bake-a-lite.  Apparently, in its day, Bakelite was quite the material and was (and might still be) used in quite a few industrial and consumer applications.  The use of Bakelite in cookware was just but one of its many uses.

In a number of places it shows the high pressure / temperature molding process with hydraulic presses; our parts are still made this way today, starting with a powder that is formed into the parts. For a little about the chemistry of Bakelite, here is another video.

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Guide to finding the correct size sauce pan or skillet handle

By on October 23, 2017 in Parts, Tips

We sell two different sauce pan and skillet handles.

Single screw style

The single screw handle was made post 1968.  It has a single screw, or, more likely, rivet through the metal part of the handle that holds the handle to the pot.  Any size of these handles will fit any pot, so you really can’t go wrong unless you put a small handle on a very large pot or vice versa.  The best wy to size this handle is just to measure the overall length of the Bakelite part of the handle.

5.4 in long Bakelite – X-Large
4.8 in long – Large
4.3 in long – Medium
4.1 in long – Small

Two-screw style

These were made before 1968 and have a screw at either end of the handle.  Note that very early ones has two screws near the front, and another around the hanging hook in the back.  If you have one of those, there is no exact replacement.

There are two ways to size these up.  The easiest way is to start with the spline height.

3/8 in – Small
5/8 in – Medium
3/4 in -Large or X-Large

If you have a 3/4 in spline, then check the distance between the centers of the holes to determine which handle you have.  Alternately, you can just start with that measurement.

3.7 in – X-Large
3.1 in – Large
2.6 in – Medium
2.75 in (and with a 3/8 in spline) Small
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Can stainless steel be seasoned?

By on October 21, 2017 in Care, Tips

In our kitchen, we have a great fondness for our cast iron pan, which has been nicely seasoned for years.  It holds a permanent spot on our stove top and gets used almost every day.  Most of the time, I simply scrape the bottom with a metal spatula and wipe it out with a paper towel.  About every third time I cook, I also add a little water and scrub it with a nylon brush (but no soap).  It stays nicely seasoned and food, for the most part, doesn’t stick.

I recently found a video that shows how to season a stainless steel pan to make it nonstick, and it it pretty simple.

I am going to try this with out of our Revere Ware skillets and report back.

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Can a dryer sheet help remove burnt food from a pan

By on October 18, 2017 in Care, Tips

This seems almost too good to be true, that simply adding adding a dryer sheet to a soak for burnt on food will magically soften it.  I’m afraid my wife hasn’t been burning too much food lately so I am at a disadvantage for being able to test this.  If someone has a chance to test this, it would be interesting to try it with soap along and with soap and the dryer sheet.

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Measuring the value of our parts, part 2

By on October 3, 2017 in Ebay, Parts, Trends & statistics

We’ve discussed the economics of small batch manufacturing and the comparative pricing of other similar mass-manufactured parts.  By that measure, what we sell might look expensive (but is justified given how much it costs to manufacture in smaller quantities).

There is also another way to comparatively view the cost of our products against what they might cost if we didn’t provide them.  Consider this eBay auction for 21 new-old-stock (NOS) replacement parts:

They are asking a starting bid price of $199 + $12.65 shipping for all these parts.  And with few such new parts available, they would probably sell in the $300-$400 range.  On our site, the equivalent parts would cost $149.79 (and shipping would be free), a 29% discount over the starting bid of that auction, and probably less than 50% of what they would sell for.

The alternative of scarcity and the pricing pressure it puts on whatever stock of something in relatively high demand remains, is something to consider when you are looking to replace something in the vintage category.

On the other hand, I do often notice that people listing items on eBay think that just by adding the word “rare” to the auction title, they can demand a higher price.  Demand is the other part of this equation; without demand, rarity along doesn’t justify value.

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The Beauty and Pleasure of vintage revere ware

By on September 6, 2017 in History, Interesting, Memorabilia

Customer Judy perfectly captured our thoughts on Revere Ware with this comment:

When I married in 1979 it was very hard to find Revere cookware. I know it was still being made, but it was not easy to find unless you lived in larger urban areas. My mother had (& still has) Revere. However, she wasn’t going to let me have it. When my last cookware needed replacing, I was in a pickle. I was fed up with imported junk and could not find anything I liked. Then, I came across a small used pot and bought it. It was love at first cook. Even with a ding and slight warp in the bottom, it cooked better than anything I have ever owned. Since then I have been a regular at second hand stores looking for Revere cookware. I love it. Today I found a skillet with double circle stamp. Someone once asked me it I was going to resell a piece that I had in my buggy. NEVER!

 

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