A couple of years ago I received a set of copper-bottom pans for my birthday. They looked absolutely fabulous until I cooked with them, then the copper turned dark and dull. I don't like to use harsh chemicals so I never went in for any of that polishing stuff (plus it makes my head all woozy). I heard once that salt would clean your copper so I set out with a scrub brush, a lot of dish soap and salt. No go. So I resigned myself to having copper pans that looked used. There's nothing wrong with that, right?
Today I was on google and decided to look up how to use salt to polish copper. Pretty simple, really. Just take a lemon, cut it in half, dip in salt, rub. After 30 minutes in my kitchen, three lemons, and less than a cup of salt (yeah, that's all), all of my pans are back to their glorious shiny penny state. What's more, it makes the stainless pretty damn shiny too! Hooray for non-toxic, organic solutions to cleaning in the house.
Posted by kerewin at January 15, 2006 10:03 PManother alternative to harsh chemicals, would be to lick the salt, shoot some tequila and suck on the lemons... talk about NOT getting your cleaning done.
Posted by: NED at January 17, 2006 02:47 PMWas it Revereware. As a child, we had two pots and two pots only. Revereware. And my mother polished those suckers (with some scary Ajax-like chemical powder) every single night until they gleamed. She hated to cook but she was pretty ob-com, my mother.
So glad to know there is another way.
Posted by: ozma at January 18, 2006 12:13 PMI have one piece that is Revereware, given to my by my MIL, I totally love it. It reminds me of the teapot my parents had (and still have, actually). But no, I got a set of copper pans from Linens and Things, way cheaper than Macys.
I have to say that seeing how amazing they turned out, I might get a little OCD about the shine. Of course, a few tequila shots should take care of that little problem.
Posted by: kerewin at January 18, 2006 10:48 PM