Copper King…

As the weather has finally turned colder, imagine the comfort of a pot simmering on the stovetop on a gray afternoon. A savory beef or pork gravy coming together with just some pan drippings, flour, butter and water. The burner is on low heat and there's gentle bubbling as you stir. If it's a gas cooktop, it's sometimes hard to get the low simmer you want, and extra care must be taken to not let the gravy start sticking to the bottom. Rest assured, though, you've got an essential tool to help prevent just that: a gorgeous vintage copper saucepan. Whenever I'm participating in an antiques auction and I come upon vintage copper cookware, I gravitate towards it. Copper pots and pans are highly sought after not only for their beauty when hanging from a pot rack but because they're still so incredibly useful. Good old copper pans are heavy, and copper naturally disperses the heat evenly throughout the pan's surface. While certainly no expert, I've learned how to identify more valuable pieces and which ones to leave behind. As a naturally occurring metal, copper has been used to make tools for more than 10,000 years. According to "The Shiny (and Genuinely Useful) Guide to Copper Cookware" by Becky Duffett at www.epicurious.com, there have been pieces dated to about 8700 B.C. in Northern Iraq. One of the original copper cookware manufacturers was Mauviel founded in Normandy, France in 1830. French-made copper pans are still the most desirable in the collecting world. As Julia Child said in her "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," "Copper pots are the most satisfactory of all to cook in, as they hold and spread the heat well." France certainly didn't hold a monopoly on the production of copper cookware, though, as both India and Mexico created their own kadhais (deep, two-handled cooking pots) and cazos (a semi-cone shaped cooking pot). Here in America, forging copper has been around since Paul Revere was a coppersmith by trade. Identifying true antique copper pots can be a tad tricky. The first thing to observe is the presence of a maker's mark; the second is the pot's weight. A vintage copper pan should feel quite heavy as the oldest pieces were made from heavy gauge copper sheet metal. Next would be how the pot was constructed. If you see signs that two pieces of copper were joined together via dovetailing, the pot is probably pre-1900. If the copper walls of the pan appear hand-hammered, that would also date it to the early industrial age and prior, though the hand-hammered look is also easily reproduced in modern copper cookware. A more discerning copper collector can also look at a pan's joinery and rivets. Hand-made and hand-inserted rivets point to the oldest of pots. Similarly, the iron handles applied to copper pots can tell you a lot. The oldest are hand-forged, followed by wrought iron and finally cast iron. Vintage copper pots are pricey so if you're going to invest in their rosy, orange beauty, why not use them in your kitchen on a regular basis? If you're going to invest $100 on an antique two-quart copper saucepan, don't just let it hang there gathering dust. Some people are hesitant to cook with their old copper pans because the tin interior has worn away, leaving the copper exposed. Partner Joe uses an extra-large, deep copper skillet I brought home from auction years ago on a regular basis. Most of its tinning has worn away but we still don't shy away from using it. Copper is a mineral that is in every human body and helps us carry out functions such as strengthening connective tissues and blood vessels and aids our nervous and immune systems. While it's possible to get too much copper into our bodies, our liver typically excretes excess amounts. It takes an awful lot to reach a toxic level. Most copper cookware is lined with a coating of tin or other non-reactive metal to prevent too much leaching of the mineral into foods. Copper is reactive and foods with a high acidity level can cause some of it to be released. The good news is that there are companies that specialize in re-tinning copper pots! It's not inexpensive, however, but well worth the investment whether you're a serious foodie, antique collector or both! A quick online search brought up East Coast Tinning out of Rhode Island (www.eastcoasttinning.com), Rocky Mountain Retinning out of Colorado (www.rockymountainretinning.com) and www.handtinning.com from Cape Cod. Maybe that hard-to-shop-for chef on your gift list would like a beautifully polished and re-tinned saucepan under the tree!