We recently acquired a very pristine 14-cup indoor-outdoor percolator, the largest Revere Ware made during the vintage era. This particular gem came with the instruction manual, which has been MIA for many years, so we are happy to finally get it archived.
You can see the new page here. (The link has been fixed now)
We recently came across this Revere Ware brochure from 1965.
It comes folded like this.
We’ve seen things like this included in new Revere Ware that we’ve come across on eBay, still in the box, from the same era, so it seems likely this brochure came with a purchased piece of cookware.
What is interesting, is that it appears to be some kind of order form, showing some sets, and quite a few individual pieces. Do you think someone could get away with calling a set the “Homemaker” set in this day and age?
Here they are a bit larger.
Wow, look at the Art Deco styling of that beverage server. I’ll be on the lookout for one of those.
What is interesting is that, there are places to check off what one wants to order, but there are no prices, and no instructions on how to place and order. I wonder exactly how one used this form?
To consider where this brochure falls in Revere Ware history, this is just 4 years before they changed the design, reducing the thickness of the copper and stainless steel, and made the cookware that much less effective.
Lastly, there is an bit about their cleaners.
The copper cleaner is pretty standard stuff. However, the stainless steel cleaner has me curious, with the statement “Easily removes stubborn discolorations and heat stains …”
If you’ve ever overheated stainless steel, you are probably familiar with the rainbow swirls you can get on the stainless steel, also sometimes called heat tint. We recommend Bar Keepers Friend for dealing with that, but it isn’t perfect. I wonder if their stainless steel cleaner was better.
Revere Ware produced tea kettles in many styles over the years, as evidenced by this ad (apparently from the 70’s given the avocado colored tea kettle).
The most iconic tea kettle is the stainless with copper bottom art-deco style which is still sold today.
We now have an information page for this kettle with care and use tips. We are in the early stages of producing replacement parts (handles, whistles, and triggers) for these kettles.
With manuals in hand, I thought I knew all there was about the vintage 4 quart Revere Ware pressure cookers, but I just came across a pamphlet that was distributed with the pressure cookers entitles Know Your Revere Pressure Cooker, and it has some interesting information and clearly shows how the Revere pressure cooker was superior to others when it was introduced.
Among the tips gleaned from this pamphlet:
Our latest cookbook is another gem published by Revere Copper & Brass Inc. My favorite recipes? While I realize not everyone may be a fan of sardines, I am and the Deviled Sardines recipe sounds very interesting. Another interesting recipe is the Risotto A La Milanese.
As for oddest recipe in the book, I am going to have to go with Peanut Butter Celery Soup.
I recently came across a Revere Ware use and care guide from 1987.
Some notable points from this guide:
1. The guide claims that Revere Ware cookware is oven safe up to a temperature of 425 degrees F. We don’t recommend putting your Revere Ware into the oven for a couple of reasons. First, ovens often heat very unevenly, so even with a temperature setting less than 425, the broiler can heat the Bakelite parts to a higher temperature and melt them. Second, with replacement parts getting harder and harder to find, it just isn’t worth risking them with oven use.
2. The guide talks about phenolic handles. It isn’t clear to use whether Revere started using a material other than Bakelite at some point or whether phenolic is simply a more general term for the category of materials to which Bakelite belongs. If anyone has any information on this, please contact us.
3. The guide also claims that the cookware is dishwasher safe but the handles may eventually become dulled from dishwasher cleaning. See point #1. Don’t risk your non-metal parts with excessive wear. Wash your Revere Ware by hand.
Here is an interesting piece we came across recently, the Revere Ware micro-fryer from 1987. What is unique about this piece is that despite being metal, it is apparently made for both the stove-top and the microwave oven. We haven’t tried it yet!
The manual can be found here.
From the Shine Shops Revere Info Center:
“The Micro-Fryer was introduced in 1987 – designed to allow “combination cooking” – food could be browned on the range top, and then transferred to the microwave oven to complete cooking – all in the same pan. The pans were available in 8″ and 10″ sizes, with both copper clad and aluminum disc bottoms. A tempered glass cover (required instead of metal to prevent arcing) was provided with each piece. This line was an early casualty of the merger with Corning that was to come only a year after it’s introduction – It was in direct competition with existing Corning’s microwavable cookware; and internal politics forced Revere to cancel it in 1989.”
Given the absolute lack of any metal cookware today that is promoted as microwave safe, I suspect this product would have died anyway. Virtually any microwave sold today includes in its instructions to avoid using ANYTHING metal in the microwave and even the USDA claims that metal is not safe to use in a microwave.
We finally managed to find a manual for the 1574 and 1576 model Revere Ware pressure cookers produced in the 1970’s and possibly later.
The number of manuals and recipe books on our vintage materials is growing. One recent acquisition is an instructional video for the Meal’n Minutes electric pressure cooker model 806. Another one is the Famous Revere Ware Chef’s cookbook, a wonderful 300+ page cookbook from the 50’s by a chef that was fond of the copper-clad cookware. Regardless of the nostalgic aspect, it is a pretty good cookbook.
We now have a number of vintage Revere Ware manuals and guides posted on our info page. If you have some vintage manuals, cookbooks, ads, or other Revere Ware literature, please send us copies or pdf files and share them with the rest of the Revere Ware community.
