Copper pots and pans in a professional kitchen...

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Ok I'm back on my fascination with pans.

Does anybody cook with copper pots and pans anymore in professional kitchens or is I t only reserved for Michelin stared restaurants?

If you do, do you keep them all shiny and sparkling?

I have two Falk pots that unfortunately get minimal use. They are superior cookware but so heavy.

I've used barkeeps friend but the copper is still blemished.

ImageUploadedByKitchen Knife Forum1411130133.202118.jpg
 
I've used small copper pots for soufflés, kept them clean with a mixture of lemon juice, white vinegar, table salt & plain flour.
I have a 3l Mauviel copper sugar pot that I use for caramels, syrups & jams, it gets an occasional polish. When I win lotto, and have my dream restaurant I'll have a lot more :)
 
Equal parts egg white, salt, vinegar polishes amazingly
 
wow....that's a huge improvement. Nice work Dennis!
 
You need to buy a giant bottle of Tabasco sauce. Cleans tarnished copper with no effort on your part.
 
At trotter's they used all copper pots. As the staggier I got to wash and polish all of them every night I was there :)
 
I was thinking. Since those handles look so rustic, I don't think you'd want to clean these pans too much.
 
You're going for the rustic look?

For outright shiny at an ok price I've found little beats Matfer Bistro paste on my newer Mauviel pieces and the cheap copper bowls I've been finding on Amazon. I'm sure I'd prefer more patina on Parisian trouvailles du marché aux puces but for everyday cooking I love the look of shiny-like-new.
 
I'm not a professional, but I have a lot of copper at home. I don't polish it.
 
I'm now green. With envy. Not oxidation.

I only have a big jam pan and a few egg white bowls.
 
Are the jam pans worth getting over just using a dutch oven? I have been thinking about one for the last couple of seasons.
 
Are the jam pans worth getting over just using a dutch oven? I have been thinking about one for the last couple of seasons.

If you make a lot of jam, they are. They aren't good for anything that isn't highly sugary and low acid.
 
Note that the hand-hammered Mauviel jam pan is wide but ever so slightly convex on the bottom. Fine on gas, not perfect on (my) Ceran cooktop. No uneven heating, the copper conducts so much quicker than anything else so no worries there, but it never gets quite hot enough because the pan reacts so quickly. Every time the burner cycles, the cooking slows or speeds up immediately. I'm trying to find out if there's a way to fool the infinite control and thermocouple to stay on longer.
 
Actually copper is a preferred material to whip egg whites for soufflés. I've got a 2.5 Q Mauville copper bowl for this purpose.

Do you get a noticeable difference in the egg whites consistency using the copper bowl?
 
Think it's worth finding and paying a local coopersmith to try to flatten the bottom of my pan? Silly me for expecting precision from a $280 hand-crafted metal piece [he says before he looks at his Masamoto KS 270 gyuto. Oh, wait...].
 
I honestly couldn't tell you if it makes a huge difference in the final product. I've read that unlined copper "brightens" jam or helps preserve certain aspects of the fruit's flavor profiles, but I can't quantify any of that. The theory of why a jam pan is beneficial is that it is a wide, relatively shallow pan with flared sides that speeds evaporation and thus gelling, and the highly conductive copper gives super-fine temperature control.

Alas, we bought this smooth-top range with no thought for making jams. I have NG service, but putting a gas stove in the kitchen would require major retrofitting so I will wait till we win a lotto jackpot and can gut the entire main floor of the house which will result in building my dream kitchen.
 
I had some copper, but ended up switching to exclusively deBuyer, cast iron, and a few tri-ply pieces of Zwilling's. for ease of care, and for what I do, what I'm using now is doing the trick just fine. I wanted to like copper, but it wasn't for me. Strange, because I still love carbon steel knives, and they kind of fit into the same category, in my mind. I think I have one copper pan kicking around that I use on my grill, outside (you don't want to see the state of that pan)....

On a side note, I've been on this particular forum for three and a half years, and I'm really glad to see a member like Sameguy start coming to the forefront. For a while there, I was noticing a lot of fodder, but his posts always seem to illicit great conversation. :)
 
Thanks, Lefty!

How's "winter" so far? ;) Down east we've been mostly in the mid-70s until a couple of days ago, 50s and wind, back into the 70s next week...
 
I do not cook professionally but I do cook often for family and friends and do use Falk pans often. I use bar keepers to clean them and they do not seem to need anything else. You might want to look at the Mauviel M'Cook line (with the cast iron handle) which is 5 ply and are a joy to see and use with less maintenance than the copper ones. Another alternative is De Buyer stainless steel (7 ply) for similar reasons. Both are cheaper than Falk.
 
Copper pans are going out of fashion now unless you do pastry. they are too expensive
 
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