Have We Determined How To Unblacken Aluminum?

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I like my Mirro cookers but Prestos are easier to find parts for on store shelves.  I just recently picked up a barely used aluminum finish Mirro 404 cooker at Savers to replace my scratched up avocado 404 from the 60's that apparently developed a bit of a warp some time ago.  I had been looking for that exact cooker for quite a while, and in the interim found a model 394 which I like too, as it's more substantial and sturdy than the later 404, but it's even harder to find parts for a 394 anywhere but on line.

 

My Presto is the biggest of the three at 8 quarts.  Bought it about ten years ago.  It works well, and although it's aluminum and not stainless, I use my cookers about as often as Allen does so it's not worth it to me to spend the extra money for stainless.  I've never put any of my cookers through the dishwasher.  Presto parts can be found in hardware stores like ACE and OSH, which is why I chose that brand when I was shopping for a larger size. 

 

Allen, we must have similar vintage Mirro instruction/cook books.  Mine has squirrel and rabbit recipes too!  Who did they think were buying their cookers, the Clampetts?  Or are squirrel and rabbit regularly featured on Wisconsin dinner tables?
 
The thing that gets me about the pressure cooker we ruined the finish on is that is WAS a very recent e-bay purchase. In fact this was the very first time it was being used! It was offered as a new in the box never used vintage item, and true to the listing it was spotless and shiny!

It's a 6 Qt unit but it was so big it would hardly fit in the kitchen sink for hand washing, that's how it came to be put in the dishwasher in the first place.

Ralph:
That's what I thought too when I saw those odd recipes.

Miss Gulf Coast:
There are those people who get pressure cookers as gifts but refuse to use them because they are scared of them. I know quite a few people who wouldn't even let one in the door because of this. I imagine that's how some of those get into thrift stores.
 
I Feel Your Pain

Have had my share of runied "NIB" treasures found from eBay or other sources. *LOL*

Being as that may, as suggested upthread there are quite allot of new/unused vintage or new PCs on eBay and or thrifts.

Often given as gifts and never used pressure cookers were simply packed away. Another source is from store stock that was simply never sold.

Pressure cookers probably had their last huge heyday during the 1970's recession. Food prices were high and a housewife often had to make her food budget stretch, especially as far as meat was concerned. A PC allowed her to whip up tasty meals from not so great cuts of meat. This was in a time when many a man felt at least dinner had better have some form of dead and cooked animal before him! *LOL*

Also with women entering the workforce pressure cookers promised a way to may fast and easy meals. However soon as microwave ovens entered the kitchen in a big way, pressure cookers were mostly kicked to the curb.

Another reason pressure cookers weren't used is that many equate the results with what their mothers or grandmothers served, food that was "boiled to death". Hard rubbery meat and mush veggies comes to mind. And yes everyone and their grandmother seems to have a story about a pc that exploded .
 
Congratulations

You've just modified your pressure cooker with a custom anodized finish.

Nothing really functionally wrong with it. In fact, the anodizing is a harder finish and the pot may well last longer because of it.

Anodizing is simply a controlled oxidation of the aluminum surface. Pure aluminum is highly reactive and more or less instantly creates a very thin layer of oxide on it as soon as it is exposed to air. Thicker layers can be created with appropriate chemicals/temps. Various colors are added with dyes when the finish is still porous. What happens in the dishwasher isn't textbook anodizing but it gives a similar result. The aluminum oxide (the same as the grit material on most sandpapers) is very very hard and is considered desirable for a number of applications. A lot of the cookware one buys these days is teflon coated on the inside and anodized on the outside. Magnalite cookware used to be anodized inside and out. I routinely stick aluminum cookware with anodized exterior finish in the dishwasher. It might change appearance a bit but I consider it preferable to a dirty pot.
 
Gem

I remember Miracle Maid and other cookware coming out of West Bend in the 70's as well as the earliest Caphalon with an anondized looking finish upselling it by saying it was coated with a mixture that included garnet to give the cookware a permanent finish.  In my experience with these styles of cookware it is extremely difficult to remove any carbonized greasy residue that forms on the outside.  When I found Calphalon that was discolored with grease I tried putting it in the self cleaning oven.  It would come out looking new although the heat gave a blueish tinge to the aluminum handles and rivets. Pans with anondized finish subjected to regular dishwasher cleaning begin to look more like concrete with a whitish hue.  It baffles me that some cooks prefer to spend a small fortune on All-Clad LTD with a stainless liner and anondized exterior.  Some of looks like the dog wouldn't eat from it after a few years being run through the dishwasher.  I have also learned the hard way that glassware, cookware and colorized Pyrex can look wonderful in a second hand store or yard sale and once home it turns white, etched and ugly after a good washing.  Using a something as simple as canola oil to polish etched glassware and anondized cookware masks the damage.  In those cases when I've been had they are usable as a display but can never be resold.
 
To me it's all about stainless-steel.

Aluminum and copper are not allowed in my kitchen.

With SS one can throw any chemical include lye-based oven-cleaner and have perfect results.

To clean the inside of an aluminum pot add a peeled potato, water and lemon juice. The oxidation will transfer to the potato as the water is boiled.
 
Yes! We have.

At least, others have and I have learned from them.

 

I collect and use pressure cookers. Have a personal weakness for the Presto/National cast aluminium pressure pans from the late '40s and the early stainless steel cookers. The ones with the springs, just like the 'modern' European style.

 

Obviously, I rarely get them in anything but post-dishwasher shape.

 

Here's what works for me:

1) Since I'm going to be cleaning thoroughly, I don't worry about using steel-wool cleaning pads. Get some (the dollar store blue soaped ones are fine) and scrub away for a few minutes. Rinse thoroughly.

2) Pick up one of those polishing kits for various metals at The Homeless Despot or Habor Fright - they have a black stick, a red stick and a white stick as well as two or three polishing wheels and arbor for your drill.

3) Clamp the drill into place, load on wheel with a fair amount of olive oil (the cheaper in this case, the more acidic, the better) then rub the black stick onto the wheel, not the pressure cooker. Using gentle pressure, rub the entire surface over the wheel. This will take a few minutes to cover everything, with frequent stops to reload the wheel.

Wipe the mixture of oxidation, black polish and oil off with an absorbent cloth then clean well with either window cleaner or DAWN hand dishsoap and lots of water or WD-40. All of these work well.

If you've removed the tarnish, go to the next stick, the red one and continue the same way, using a clean wheel. If not, repeat the process.

You'll probably need twice the time with the red stick and oil.

If the finish is now nearly right, switch to Mother's Mag and Alu polish to finish up. If it's not quite there, yet, another run with the red polish will do it.

The white polishing compound is really good for Bakelite handles which your pot won't have.

 

I've done this over the years on over 30 pressure pans/stove-top espresso cookers* and always been happy with the results.

 

Oh, the ads about 'sapphire' finishes are true - look up aluminium oxide under precious jewels some time. Deceptive, but true.

 

As to the whole Alzheimer's nonsense, it's just that - one will absorb far more aluminium with medications and food than through aluminium cookware, first. Second, there is now and never was a link between the aluminium salt deposits in the brains of those with the disease and consumption of the metal.

 

*Yes, I know. It's not really espresso, etc.
 
Yes! We have.

At least, others have and I have learned from them.

 

I collect and use pressure cookers. Have a personal weakness for the Presto/National cast aluminium pressure pans from the late '40s and the early stainless steel cookers. The ones with the springs, just like the 'modern' European style.

 

Obviously, I rarely get them in anything but post-dishwasher shape.

 

Here's what works for me:

1) Since I'm going to be cleaning thoroughly, I don't worry about using steel-wool cleaning pads. Get some (the dollar store blue soaped ones are fine) and scrub away for a few minutes. Rinse thoroughly.

2) Pick up one of those polishing kits for various metals at The Homeless Despot or Habor Fright - they have a black stick, a red stick and a white stick as well as two or three polishing wheels and arbor for your drill.

3) Clamp the drill into place, load on wheel with a fair amount of olive oil (the cheaper in this case, the more acidic, the better) then rub the black stick onto the wheel, not the pressure cooker. Using gentle pressure, rub the entire surface over the wheel. This will take a few minutes to cover everything, with frequent stops to reload the wheel.

Wipe the mixture of oxidation, black polish and oil off with an absorbent cloth then clean well with either window cleaner or DAWN hand dishsoap and lots of water or WD-40. All of these work well.

If you've removed the tarnish, go to the next stick, the red one and continue the same way, using a clean wheel. If not, repeat the process.

You'll probably need twice the time with the red stick and oil.

If the finish is now nearly right, switch to Mother's Mag and Alu polish to finish up. If it's not quite there, yet, another run with the red polish will do it.

The white polishing compound is really good for Bakelite handles which your pot won't have.

 

I've done this over the years on over 30 pressure pans/stove-top espresso cookers* and always been happy with the results.

 

Oh, the ads about 'sapphire' finishes are true - look up aluminium oxide under precious jewels some time. Deceptive, but true.

 

As to the whole Alzheimer's nonsense, it's just that - one will absorb far more aluminium with medications and food than through aluminium cookware, first. Second, there is now and never was a link between the aluminium salt deposits in the brains of those with the disease and consumption of the metal.

 

*Yes, I know. It's not really espresso, etc.
 
Keven, I know you have your doubts about a possible link between Alzheimers and aluminum but bear in mind there is a powerful lobby behind aluminium maybe even more powerful than the tobacco lobby ever was.

If it was so harmless as we`ve been told all the time why would possible brain damage or dementia be listed on the side effects of current aluminium containing antacids ? (At 31:49)

There`s a great documentary "The Age of Aluminium" which has changed my view on the subject. I know most of the intake is via food so it`s nearly impossible to avoid, but why take an extra risk through cook ware antiperspirants and so on ?

 
That was a bit harsh, sorry.

I've been down the whole 'Alu' ist des Teufels discussion throughout the '70s and '80s and '90s and this century with German friends and relations and it's just pure nonsense.

Still, I shouldn't have been so harsh.
 
How about we discuss a bit of the actual data?

Here's the problem with the patients that ended up in the "aluminum may cause Alzheimer's" paper -- all the patients had been scanned using a CAT scan, if I remember right. One of the disadvantages of X-rays is that it tends to need a "contrast" which is usually injected into the patient's veins. And every single one of those patients had a contrast that included Aluminum in its ingredients, which, of course, were present a short time later when the patients died and had their brains examined during the autopsies.

So, at best, we can't use *those* "studies" to claim Aluminum causes the problems.

We'll need to start over and study people who never had been injected with such contrasts, or do trials to find out how long contrasts linger in one's brain etc.

One of the things that irks me about the current relationship between medical research and the media is just how *clueless* the media can be even when given precise data.

Around 1996 or so, some folks at Harvard published a paper where they explained that some evidence was surfacing that for liposoluble vitamins, one is much better off getting them in the form of milk, fats etc than in pills. That was it, for a full two days, you could just not turn on the TV on any channel without reporters talking about how Harvard scientists had said that X, where X varied by station, reporter and time, and they listed everything from "you need to eat some fats", to "you need two tablespoons of mayonnaise per day" passing thru "drinking milk", "eating some/1/2/4 tablespoons of butter per day/week" etc. In other words, some read the report and talked as close to it as they could, but most reporters just made the statement sound as outrageous as possible for their expected audience.

And no, I don't use aluminum cookware if I can avoid it. I am not afraid of it, I just like to put as much as possible in the dishwasher and if I reach my goal of *nothing* is hand washed in that meal, I am happy. Sure, some people are happy with how Aluminum pots and pans come off the dishwasher, I am not and I don't have time to polish everything either.

Cheers,
   -- Paulo.

PS: I can't tell you how horrified and pissed off the Harvard researchers were at how their study about vitamins was reported by the media. Me, I was surprised they were not used to it, it happens all the time.
 
It's the same in Germany

The local group of the Greens met in my apartment kitchen for a few years in Munich. They all smoked. All.Of.Them.

I insisted they put out their cigarettes (hand rolled, of course) outside before they came in.

Me, they'd lecture on how evil I was for having  a dishwasher and a clothes tumbler (dryer) and, gasp! I actually slept under an electric blanket!

But they all smoked cigarettes like factory chimneys. All.

 

As to the whole Alumnium causes dementia nonsense, that one falls into the same category as sugar causes fungi in the body, silicium must be avoided because it's useless to the body and dihydrogen monoxide is poisonous category.

 

Nonsense, all of it. From beginning to end.

 

 
 
A little subject drift...

From time to time I've wondered why no detergent manufacturer has ever come out with an "aluminum safe" dishwasher detergent.  I'd buy a box for the times I'd love to toss some cookie sheets, or pots and pans in the dishwasher.
 
That's what I don't understand, aluminium survived in the dishwasher when I was a kid. My mother and grandmother both had aluminium sunbeam electric fry pans and ran them in the dishwasher for years. At some point even with chlorine, something changed and they'd go black in one wash.

I'd love to know exactly what did change.
 
Don`t worry, it`s your opinion and it wasn`t harsh at all.
The consensus of the documentary was that it has never been proven that aluminium causes Alzheimers but the opposite has never been proven as well.

What cannot be denied is that aluminium is a neurotoxin and when fish will die from the smallish amounts of aluminium dissolved from the earth crust by acid rain or when cattle dies after a drinking water incident in England I`m getting suspicious.
Paris for example no longer uses aluminium compounds to treat their city`s drinking water because there are safety concerns.
Aluminiumhydroxide is used to trigger all sorts of food allergies in animal research. So I try to avoid any excessive intake.

An aluminium safe dishwasher detergent probably isn`t going to happen because it would have to be pH neutral or slightly acidic I think. Not so good for cleaning backed on food residue effectively.
 

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