Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Giving New Life To Some Old Pans


I am blessed to have a wonderful set of Revere Ware cooking pots and pans.  My set is very special to me because it is a combination of pans that belonged to both of my grandmothers and one of my great grandmothers.  I love these pans.

 

I love those shiny copper bottoms

Recently my oldest daughter acquired a set of her own pans when we found them at a thrift store a couple weeks ago.  We brought them home, scrubbed them up and polished them.  She is thrilled to have a set of her very own and my youngest was pretty impressed with them too.

 

This steamer set really caught my fancy

This past Saturday my oldest and I came across another set of Revere Ware pans as well as a steamer set I'd never seen before.  We decided not to pass them up and I bought them to bring home with the idea that I would use the steamer and the other set would be perfect as a gift for my youngest.  Especially since she had expressed an interest in her sister's set.

 

The bottom of the pan was in need of some love


The inside was coated in hardened water deposits

It was easy to clean and polish the three pan set and get it ready to give as a Christmas gift.  I used soap and water to make sure they were nice and clean then polished them inside and out with some Barkeepers Friend.

 

Desperate times call for desperate measures

However, the steamer set wasn't in nearly as good of shape and my usual method of cleaning and polishing, no matter how much elbow grease I used was getting it where I was hoping it would.  Inside the pan and steamer was a lot of water deposits and the bottom of the pan had been burnt pretty good on a burner at one time.  I was ready to give up on it when I decided I had nothing to lose and went to the garage for a worn piece of wet/dry automotive sandpaper I had out there.  Back in the kitchen I went to work.

 

It was working!


And it began to remove the black burner rings from the bottom of the pan.

 

Amazingly well!

It took a lot of elbow grease and sanding, but in time it gave way.

 

Now that is what I call amazing

Until finally the Barkeepers Friend was able to jump in and do its job like it does.  I was thrilled.

 

Wow!

I was also thrilled when I was able to carefully use the sandpaper on the inside of the pan to remove the heavy film of water deposits lining the sides and bottom.


Inside is all cleaned up, no more water scale


Super clean and shiny 😊


I'm really glad I didn't give up on this steamer pan set.  Because I have a pan that the steamer will fit on I decided to only keep that portion to use in my kitchen.  The pan and lid portion, however, will be spending its time out in our motorhome kitchen so it will still be a welcome addition.  All of my scrubbing will definitely not be in vain and this pan will still get its chance to be useful.

 


22 comments:

  1. A good set of pans is second to only a good life partner in my book. My husband gave me my Farber Ware Millenium series set (two stock pots with lids, large lidded frying pan, 2 smaller frying pans, steamer, 3 qt, 2 qt, 1 qt saucepans) as a housewarming gift before we moved to the PNW. He bought it at the outlet while closing on our house. You see, I didn't want to move from the sunny southwest. He put hem in the kitchen pantry in the house, waiting for me when we arrived. A few days later, the moving van arrived with our furniture.I remember crying as it pulled up in the pouring rain, saying, "Well, I know I'm keeping the pans, not so sure about you after this."

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    1. That's hilarious! Your poor husband. Very smart of him to buy you that set of pans.

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  2. Meant to add....whenever I see either a decent Revere or Farber Ware pan in a thrift shop, it finds its way home with me, and gets cleaned and stored in the designated kid's closet for them to have when they set up house. (Hey, a girl can dream, eh?)

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  3. I will be on the lookout now to add to my set. By the way vinegar usually works well to get the hard water deposits off of dishes and pans.

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  4. I remember when Revere Ware was the cream of the crop. I couldn't afford it back in the day so I decided I would purchase one piece at a time. I charged my first pot at a department store and before I could get out of the store, it was stolen. I had laid it down beside me while looking at baby clothes and when I finished looking at the clothes, the pot was gone. I never bought anymore after that. Good cookware though that has withstood the test of time.

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    1. Oh my gosh. What a heartbreaking story. I'm so sorry.

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  5. Love love love Revere Ware. That steamer set is awesome. Barkeepers friend works so good to keep them looking like new.

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    1. I'm excited about the steamer. And I love my Barkeepers Friend. :0)

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  6. I could not clean hard enough to get my cheap stainless steel pan clean. So, I had Tommy clean it for me. It shines so that I don't think it looked this good when new. Yes, I use Barkeeper's Friend on stainless steel. Just now, I washed the pot for the first time since he did. He did not bother to clean the bottom of the pan! When he hears the pan will cook better with a shiny bottom, he will work on it, too.

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    1. Lucky you! I nearly scrubbed my arms off on those pans. I was exhausted!

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  7. Great job on cleaning the pots. Good call on using the automotive sandpaper.

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    1. Strong enough to get the burnt food off and fine enough not to damage the copper. Yay!

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  8. (I love Revere ware. I still have mine from 1986.

    You did a great job and cleaning the pans. Enjoy, Janie

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  9. I love my Revere Ware. I've had it for over 40 years.

    What a good find with that steamer and the other pans as well. I've never seen the steamer either.

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    1. Wasn't that a neat find? I'm super thrilled about it.

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  10. I've always used half a lemon and salt to clean the bottom of my copper bottom Revere Ware.

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