Corningware and "The Counter That Cooks"

[dandureiko]

noticed a few threads on corningware. Thought perhaps we could all put our efforts into one place?
I LOVE Corningware, bigtime. at 14yo I drug home a broken corningware cooktop....prior to the 3+1, so you needed all cookmates to cook. I ordered a new piece and installed it myself, and Dad put it in the kitchenette in the rec room.
shortly after that we purchased (about early '76" a Frigidaire Touch 'N Cook range during a kitchen remodel although white glass cooktop, could take any cookwawre.
I find REAL Corningware (Pyroceram) the best cookware in Microwave/Convection, Advantium, and Trivecton ovens......
as I"m sure you all know World Kitchen aquired Corningware/Pyrex.and discontinued Pyroceram....and changed Pyrex as well...
Now they have brought back Pyroceram, made in France and rather expensive.
I'd rather go to eBay and get the original in "Daisy" (mod yellow flowers) I remember from way back.
on a sidenote, I know an older woman (80) with an original counterange and all the cookmates, works great she loves it.
I'll post pics as soon as they get back home in the spring.
Dan

 

[kqkenmore]

when did world kitchen take over and how do you tell the differnce.I just called my mother and told her not to get rid of any old corning ware that she has. Thanks for the information.

 

[austinado16]

We had one of these stoves in harvest gold, back in 1971. My did worked for a kitchen appliance and cabinet distributor/sales place, and our kitchen was a "display" kitchen. We had the latest and greatest, in all appliances and that stove was pretty amazing. We had the special corning cookware, the black handles that could clip onto the handles of the cookware, and the special cleaning solution that could clean the glass top and cookware bottoms without scratching. I remember the oven was self cleaning, which was a big deal back then too.

 

[mattl]

We had one too. Lasted about 12 years, about all we could take I think. I have no idea how many pots and pans we went through. The clip on handle was stupid, after a while we tossed it out and just grabbed things with pot holders. Toward the end Corning got smart and switched to Club aluminum pots and pans, using them to this day. Still have a few of the flat bottom pieces left, though my favorite broke long ago. It was a smallish deep round pot with 3 pouring spouts. It was handy for everything.

 

[toggleswitch2]

A neighbor had a Corning smooth-top range/oven/stove/cooker in the 70's.

1- It was ELECTRIC. *WOW* Electric cooking doesn't really exist b3yond a very rare case in NYC.
2- It had a smoooth-top. *WOW*
3- It has a self-cleaning oven RARE, WOW!
4- Their only complaint was when cooking pasta they used a regular metal 4 to 6 quart (litre) pot and had to hold it down to make contact with the heating surface. At the time it was hard to find flat-bottomed decent quality pots. You see you had to use (square) corning pots! And the heat conductiviet of thise thigns is awfull!

I remember visitng when my friend's mom was "cleaning her oven" as she stated over the telephone. I was amazed to see that "CLEANING" ligh on and the oven was totally silent! It has to be explained to my that the process was high-heat (pyrolysis). No water, no chemicals no soaps!

She knew she had only hit a few buttons (and maybe a lever) and was sitting on her @$$ chatting on the phone. The person on the other side of the line probably had visions of her on her knees with a buchet, a sponge and chemicals slaving away. HA!

This Corning brand stove looked rather high-quality and I loved how the indicator dials of the controls whirled under "glass" and were illuminated. Each one lit individiually to indicate "on". What a breeze to clean.

 

[hunter]

World Kitchens

They bought the Corningware brand sometime in...1999? 2000? 2001? Somewhere around there.

How do you tell? First, if I recall correctly the ONLY corningware that is stoneware, rather than pyroceram, is the "French White." You can tell if a french white piece is pyroceram or stoneware by feeling underneath it - if you feel a slight ridge that is a little rough, it is stoneware, if it is smooth, it is glass. (Folks if there are other ways, let me know).

Many people have said that Corningware doesn't work well on electric smoothtops because of the heat transfer properties of the glass. I haven't found that, though many of my pieces cannot be used on the smoothtop due to lack of having flat bottoms.

I have come to realize that ANYTHING other than glass pots seem to favor the food (even stainless steel). So we use Le Crueset (which I often find at Goodwill for shockingly low prices) or Corningware (ditto) only, especially for things like vegetables. Finding a 5 quart Corningware saucepan/dutch oven at Goodwill helps on that one.

Hunter

 

[magic clean]

The range

was made by GM Frigidaire. Now (elderly) relatives have one in Avocado about 37 years old. They still use the Corning utensils, but they have used Farberware without trouble.

They are good about polishing the cooktop and the bottoms of their pans.

 

[mattl]

I opened the cupboard in the back entry...

I hadn't thought about it for some time but sitting there on the top shelf was the 5th corning-ware burner! When we bought the corning-ware range as a gift we got a 5th burner, same smooth top surface, only worked with the special flat bottom pots. Bet there are not too many of those around anymore...

 

[appnut]

the house next door to me was built in about 1984--the family that built it stayed until 1988 or 1989. A Corning Range (all beautiful black) and a LittonAire OTR microwave were requested by them for the builder to put in. The people that bought the house, well the micro died in about 1994 and they retired the range in about 1996 or 1997 because it was getting slower and slower to heat the units. I loved going over there and just drooling over the range. It was replaced with a Maytag smooth top that's still being used.