A reader requested our help in identifying a Revere Ware item – a set of pans that had no handle.

My wife just found a set of three skillets that have no handles. Might you know what this product was used for and when was it in use?

This isn’t the first time someone has asked this question.  I would have assumed these were pans that lost their handles, but they don’t show any signs that a handle was ever attached.

A little internet searching however turned up a more plausible answer.

We drove a few hours away from our house to a attend a town wide sale which had several estate sales that day also. This was near Rome New York. I asked about these Revere ware pans because they were different from others I have seen. I was told that Rome, NY had a Revere Ware factory and pans that had any factory defects were often taken home by a worker and given to family and friends. Flaws many times were very minor, sometimes the stamp on the bottom of the pan was missing (These pans have no stamp on bottom). There are no handles either and there is not a place for one. Many times these pans were used in the oven, so they didn’t care if it had a handle. So these Revere Ware pans are a rare find, normally found in the towns and surrounding areas that had a Revere ware factory.

Reader Richard contacted us to identify an item.

A few years ago someone else asked us to identify a similar item and we were able to determine it is a Revere ware deep well cooker.  Here are a couple of references to it in various Revere Ware publications.

The deep well cooker dates back to somewhere in the early 1940’s.  How exactly it is used isn’t entirely clear.  Richards appears to fit quite nicely inside his bale handle pot, which make me think you would use it like a double boiler of sorts such that the heat applied to the bottom via the stove would spread out and cook from the bottom and the sides.  However, our own photo guide (assembled by a gentleman who is sadly no longer with us to clarify) states:

Deep Well Cookers (used in special stove-top “heat pits”) were common in 1930’s kitchens. However, post-war changes in cooking habits, stoves with smaller cook tops, and sealed ovens made them obsolete. Both items were discontinued by the early 1950’s.

Here is an example of such a stove setup:

My beautiful picture

Apparently these deep wells had heavily insulated sides that I’m guessing would cause the heat to surround the pot and cook from the sides as well as the bottom. Additionally, some of them had control knobs would allow for a timed period of high heat after which the control would automatically switch to low for a long simmer.

From all the discussions I found related to deep well cookers, it seems pretty clear that they were generally used in these stoves with a deep well.  But seeing Richards’s deep well insert inside the bale handle pot makes me wonder if the double-boiler type setup might provide much the same effect. And the way the bale handle attaches to the pot, such that it flares out which just-so-happens to create the perfect amount of clearance for the deep well insert, really makes me wonder if this wasn’t an intentional use.

I’d love to pick one up someday and try it out.  My wife used a vintage (avocado green) crock pot for many years and now is in love with her Instant Pot.  If the water bath works, adding this to our kitchen would great.