Copper Cookware

Advantages

Disadvantages

Cleaning

Properties

excellent heat conductor

You may need to reduce cooking time and temperature

must be lined with tin, nickel, or stainless steel

Acidic foods cause copper to tarnish.

Copper is a very soft metal and is highly susceptible to scratches

reacts to some food

Tin or nickel linings are not very durable, and must be professionally repaired

Always wash copper cookware in hot, soapy water immediately after cooking. Dry immediately and do not store with the lid on that might allow moisture to collect.

It's not absolutely necessary that you keep the copper bright and shiny; just keep it clean. Though commercial copper cleaners work best, you can also use a paste you can make with a little flour, salt and water.

Copper, has been used in cooking utensils almost since the dawn of history. Copper cookware is esteemed for its heat conductivity but should not be used unless it is lined with tin or stainless steel.  Cooked foods left directly in contact with uncoated copper may become discolored. Copper will leach into acidic foods, causing an unpleasant taste and coloration. Copper residues in foods can cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

Use wooden or other "soft" non-scratching utensils with copper. Copper cooking surfaces are usually lined with tin, nickel, or stainless steel. Tin or nickel linings are not very durable, and therefore should be recoated if these surfaces wear thru to the copper on the inside of the pan. However, because tin melts at about 450°F. avoid damage that accidental overheating might cause.

Copper has about ten times the heat conductivity of stainless and glass, and twice that of aluminum. So watch the amount of heat you give it. Top quality cookware may use a manufacturing process that bonds or laminates copper to stainless steel or other metals. Others use a core of solid copper sandwiched between two layers of stainless steel to distribute heat uniformly.