Archive | Tips

About a month ago I discovered a new type of Bar Keepers Friend, one of the better all-around cleaners for stainless steel cookware and many other household cleaning tasks.  I wondered how Bar Keepers Friend cookware cleaner would compare to the regular version.

Whether this is a recently introduced product, or I just havn’t noticed it before is a mystery to me, as the company that makes Bar Keepers Friend hasn’t returned my email about this.

First let me say that Bar Keepers Friend is one of my favorite all-around cleaners for cookware, and if I had to choose only one cleaner to have around, it would definitely be Bar Keepers Friend.

So it is with those high expectations that I compared the two cleaners side-by side on several pans with burned on grease, dulled and scratched stainless steel, and tarnished copper.

First, I tried them on a couple of copper bottom skillets.  The results are below, showing the regular version on the left and the cookware version on the right.  In the middle is what the cooper part looked like before.

I had trouble finding any difference between the results of the two.  Note that the the above results are not exhaustive.  I probably could have gotten almost all of the burned on grease and tarnish off had I done an exhaustive cleaning.

Below is a Revere Ware tri-ply skillet that had a particularly tough coating of cooked on grease on the bottom.

The results are pretty impressive, as either version was able to cut through the grease with only a moderate application of scrubbing, although getting the corners and inner edges clean requires a bit more work.

Seeing no difference between the two as far as I can tell, and given the slightly higher price of the cookware version (about 15% more), I would guess this is more of a marketing distinction than anything else.

Recommendation

Overall, this product easily removes copper tarnish, burned on grease, heavier burned on food (with plenty of scrubbing), and does a pretty good job of bringing a nice shine to dulled stainless steel.  Note that it won’t remove deep scratches, but I wouldn’t have expected that.

I recommend sticking with the regular (cheaper version) of Bar Keepers Friend.  Just follow the simple directions on the packaging and it might be a good idea to wear gloves when using it, as it is a bit hard on the hands.

World Kitchen, the owners of the Revere Ware brand seem to have moved further away from treating the Revere Ware brand as anything special by abandoning a Revere Ware specific site; they now include Revere Cookware with all other brands on their site.  Another sad milestone in the modern day story of the once revered (pun intended) brand.

Here is the site from a few years ago:

Here is where you get redirected when you go to www.revereware.com now:

Unfortunately they have also removed any mention of the history of Revere Ware and made their contact page and information about their warranty very hard to find.  Their contact page can be found here and their warranty links are all listed at the bottom of their FAQ here.

They do have a FAQ now about lack of availability of replacement parts:

Where can I get knobs and handles for my Revere cookware?

We discontinued our Revere repair service in 1986 and we no longer have the replacement handles, knobs, or hardware for your cookware. We are sorry for any inconvenience.  Revereware does carry a 25 year warranty and we may be able to provide you with warranty service.  Please call our Consumer Care Center at 1-800-999-3436.

And how about this FAQ that claims the new Revere Ware with less copper is as good as the old stuff:

Why does my older Revereware seem heavier than my newer cookware that looks the same?

Through research and testing, we’ve learned that the same cooking results were achieved when using lighter materials.

By making this information harder to find, we can only assume that World Kitchen is wanting to make it harder for customers to receive warranty replacement of cookware under their warranty.  Prior to this, they had a very low reply rate on emails sent to them with warranty questions.  I personally received responses to one of five emails.

We continue to support the older (and newer) Revere Ware by making replacement parts available and will be introducing more handles, hardware, and gaskets in the next month.  Also be sure and try our Ebay categorization tool for Revere Ware to find replacement cookware.

I’m always looking for new tips on taking care of my Revere Ware and so when I saw a book recently at a yard sale entitled Fast Fixes and Simple Solutions, Surprising Uses for Ordinary Household Items, I of course picked it up.  And it has a few suggestions for cleaning stainless steel, mostly for sinks, but they should apply to Revere Ware stainless as well.

Add sparkle to your sink. Make your stainless steel sink shine like the chrome on an old Cadillac. At the end of a hard day,
pour some club soda or white vinegar on a cloth and give your sink a good rubdown. Then dry it with a clean cloth to prevent streaks.

Wipe off water spots. Why do they call it stainless steel if it can get water spots? Instead of thinking about the answer to this question, just make your steel stainless again. Dampen a soft, clean cloth with white vinegar and wipe. When you’re happy with the results, dry your sink to avoid streaks.

Snuff out a rust-stained sink. Lighter fluid can rub out rust stains in your stainless steel sink. Just remember one thing. It’s important for safety’s sake to rinse the sink and your hands after handling the lighter fluid.

Conquer stainless steel stains. Heavy-duty stains on your stainless steel sink might need a heavy-duty fix. Try rubbing an
ammonia and water solution on the stain. If this doesn’t work, make your own cleanser by combining borax and lemon juice. But remember – always be careful with borax. It’s toxic.

Rehabilitate a scratched sink. Ifharsh cleaners and chemicals have damaged your stainless steel sink, head to your local auto parts store and buy chrome polish. With a little bit ofelbow grease and a dab of polish, you can return your sink to its original luster.

The chrome polish in particular has me wondering.  I haven’t tried any of these yet.  If you have, please let us know how well they work in the comments.

Along the same vein, they had a couple of copper cleaning tricks.

Kiss tarnish goodbye. Use a tangy salad ingredient and salt to shine tarnished brass and copper – not harsh chemicals. Salt and vinegar, mixed into a paste, make an excellent metal cleaner.

Polish your copper with ketchup. Ketchup makes your copper gleam better than expensive polishes. Simply mix ketchup
and water in equal parts. Apply it to your copper with a soft cloth and wipe off. It’s that simple.

I’ve tried both of these solutions, and they do work, but I personally find a paste copper cleaner to be must easier to use and better at cleaning the really tarnished stuff.

The problem with gift-giving is finding something appropriate to give, meaning, something that the recipient will actually like, and let’s them know you spent time thinking about what they want.  You can always give something fairly easy, and thoughtless, like a gift card, but a well-thought-out gift is always better.

Many Revere Ware owners are passionate about their cookware, and have been using it for decades.  Do you know someone like this in your life?  So why not give the Revere Ware lover in your life new parts for their cookware.  If they are anything like the Revere Ware lovers I know, they will love it!

Furthermore, given that new Bakelite and other parts for Revere Ware cookware were not available for quite some time before we started selling them in 2009, many people have given up looking for new parts and just assume they will have to live with their faded and cracked Bakelite parts, leaky pressure cooker gaskets, and rusty hardware.  Your gift will not only make them happy, it will probably be a surprise too!

Can’t find what you are looking for on our site, or can’t find the replacement part you need?

We are always willing to help answer your Revere Ware related questions, just ask us.

You can submit questions on our contact form.

My recent purchase of a Revere Ware micro fryer got me thinking about the taboo of putting metal in the microwave.  If you believe the micro-fryer literature, microwaving food in metal cookware is superior to either microwaving in non-metal or cooking in metal on the stove.

So I did a little research.  Most microwave ovens include a warning about using metal in the microwave.  But I did find one interesting article entitled You Can Use Metal in a Microwave Oven, which appears to be a very thorough and well-researched investigation into microwaves and metal cookware.

What exactly are the benefits of cooking in a microwave oven?

• Faster cooking that uses less power.  (Hey, its GREEN!)
• What you are cooking won’t brown on top until it is fully cooked.  Ever tried cooking a frozen dish that turns out burned on top but frozen in the middle?
• Using metal in the microwave, food can be more evenly heated, avoiding those molten-outside frozen inside results.
• Metal won’t break, melt, or burn, and won’t leach nasty BPA (like some plastics) into your food.
• You can use the same cookware to cook a dish both on the stove AND the microwave, for perfect results.

The most important thing about cooking in the microwave with metal cookware is to use microwave safe metal dishes.  What makes cookware unsafe for the microwave are:

1. Microwaves can cause an electric arc to appear between two improperly placed pieces of metal. The user’s ability, to cause an arc, or prevent an arc, depends on the size and shape, of the metal pieces, their relationship to each other, and the lossiness of the load in the oven cavity.
2. A metal utensil will arc to the oven walls, depending on its size, shape, distance from the oven walls, and the amount of food or other lossy material in the oven cavity.
3. Metal reflects microwaves. A metal pot with a metal cover shields the food, that it contains, from microwave energy. Food, in a metal pot with a metal cover, will not get hot. The dimensions of the metal container in relationship to the size of the food is also important.
4. The black, phenolic handles on metal pots and pans are not “Microwave Safe.” Phenolic is a plastic material, that has been used since the early part of this century as handles for metal pots and pans. Phenolic handles explode when exposed to microwaves.

Ok, so no utensils, no pots with long handles, and no phenolic handles.  I had a little trouble determining exactly what a phenolic handle is and whether Bakelite fits into this category.  My micro-fryer does have what appears to be a Bakelite handle, but it may be a different formulation that is particularly microwave safe.  Let’s just say no Bakelite handles in the microwave unless the instructions specifically say it is microwave safe.

The bottom suggestion by the article is to stick with cookware that is specifically designed for microwave cooking.  Given that not much metal cookware for the microwave is sold these days (if any at all), this might be difficult.  The value of my micro fryer just went up.

Previously, when figuring out whether Bakelite was dishwasher safe or not, I had to rely on my own anecdotal evidence, far from scientific. Finding that less than satisfying, I decided to perform my own test to see just how well Bakelite held up in the dishwasher.

The test was simple; I attached two Bakelite handle halves to the dishwasher rack with zip ties, one on the top rack, and one on the bottom.  In our household, we do about a load of dishes each day, so it is safe to say that the number of washes is about equal to the number of days in the dishwasher, within a few percent.

After two months, or 60 washes, I began to notice a little bit of fading and dulling of the shine on the Bakelite. Below is what the handles look like after six months, or 180 washes.  The darker/shinier handle is the unwashed (new) comparison.

Clearly, the Bakelite has suffered as a result of washing in the dishwasher.  There was no difference between the top rack and bottom rack; both suffered equally.

I can now say with great confidence that you should refrain from putting your cookware with Bakelite parts into the dishwasher.

I often tell people that we make our own yogurt, which makes my wife laugh, because it would be more accurate to say that she makes yogurt.  Homemade yogurt is easy, fresh, very tasty, and inexpensive and there are lots of different ways to make it.  We (my wife) started by making it in the oven but when we moved we discovered that most ovens won’t hold a steady enough low temperature to make yogurt.  We now use a yogurt maker.  My grandmother in Europe used to make yogurt by having seven plastic tubs on the window sill (one for each day of the week).  Each day they would take one down and put a new one up.  It took seven days for the yogurt to fully develop in the sun.

So, you can imagine I found it interesting when I came upon this recipe for making yogurt that involved using Revere Ware pots.