Looking for a Corning Cooktop
- Thread starter wenric
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That might be hard to come by. Had a Coring range for years, still have much of the cookware and use it on my gas cooktop. Have occasionally seen a Corningware cooktop at the Restore over the years, but they are pretty rare.
Corning Cook Mates
Matt, you mention the cookware. I have a lot of it, too, that started with the Electromatic skillet and 4.5 qt. Dutch Oven. I like the evenness of cooking and managed to buy several of the later offered Table Ranges. My brother of blessed memory used to house/dog sit for friends who had a Corning range. He was no cook, but they had some of the Teflon lined cast aluminum made for the cook top and he loved using it to make chili. I remember some square aluminum pans made by Nordic Ware (the Bundt Pan People) that we sold briefly in the housewares section of our store. The pans had a white exterior, white Teflon and came with the square, new style lids for the "A" design pyroceram pans, but they were the smaller sizes of saucepans, 1, 1.5 and 2 quart and they used the Corning lock on handle. I never saw the larger pans that my brother talked about and was wondering if you, as a Corning Range owner were familiar with them. I can tell you that the white Teflon II did not stick to the the 3 aluminum pans that I had. Nordic Aluminum offered a lot of pieces of cookware, some specialty ethnic pieces like Ebleskiver pans and corn stick pans, popover pans, Platte Panna and Sandbakkelse Set as well many varied bake and salad molds . They also offered some beautifully styled saute pans with either Teflon or stainless steel interiors. They are still based in Minneapolis and many of their pieces are still made in the USA.
Best of luck finding your cooktop.
Matt, you mention the cookware. I have a lot of it, too, that started with the Electromatic skillet and 4.5 qt. Dutch Oven. I like the evenness of cooking and managed to buy several of the later offered Table Ranges. My brother of blessed memory used to house/dog sit for friends who had a Corning range. He was no cook, but they had some of the Teflon lined cast aluminum made for the cook top and he loved using it to make chili. I remember some square aluminum pans made by Nordic Ware (the Bundt Pan People) that we sold briefly in the housewares section of our store. The pans had a white exterior, white Teflon and came with the square, new style lids for the "A" design pyroceram pans, but they were the smaller sizes of saucepans, 1, 1.5 and 2 quart and they used the Corning lock on handle. I never saw the larger pans that my brother talked about and was wondering if you, as a Corning Range owner were familiar with them. I can tell you that the white Teflon II did not stick to the the 3 aluminum pans that I had. Nordic Aluminum offered a lot of pieces of cookware, some specialty ethnic pieces like Ebleskiver pans and corn stick pans, popover pans, Platte Panna and Sandbakkelse Set as well many varied bake and salad molds . They also offered some beautifully styled saute pans with either Teflon or stainless steel interiors. They are still based in Minneapolis and many of their pieces are still made in the USA.
Best of luck finding your cooktop.
In terms of Teflon, I have 3 pots from Club Aluminum with special bottoms for the Corning range, a small pot- teflon almost gone, a large pot in great shape and a dutch oven with little teflon left, the 2 teflon-less pots get lots of use. I have a number of Corning pots and pans for the range that get moderate use. Went to a gas cooktop after the range, now on my second gas cooktop. The Corning range teapot still sits on the cook top as it has since I'd guess 1975... Wow, 45 years, where did the time go.
Self-disclosure:
When I bought this house back in 1997, it had a Corning white glass electric 36" cooktop. It didn't seem to be very efficient, and one of the "burners" had discolored the glass to brown. Don't know why. After a while I replaced it with a gas cooktop, and put the Corning out in the carport. Unfortunately in all the work I was doing I had leaned it up against a swinging garage door, forgot it was there, and when I opened the door from the inside the Corning cooktop fell over and the glass broke. At that point it went into the trash. Sorry bout that. It was over 20 years ago. I was not particularly impressed by the heating elements under the glass; they were just coiled wires. Maybe they are all that way, I don't know. I cannot say I really miss it, but if I had any idea anybody might have wanted it I would have saved it somehow.
When I bought this house back in 1997, it had a Corning white glass electric 36" cooktop. It didn't seem to be very efficient, and one of the "burners" had discolored the glass to brown. Don't know why. After a while I replaced it with a gas cooktop, and put the Corning out in the carport. Unfortunately in all the work I was doing I had leaned it up against a swinging garage door, forgot it was there, and when I opened the door from the inside the Corning cooktop fell over and the glass broke. At that point it went into the trash. Sorry bout that. It was over 20 years ago. I was not particularly impressed by the heating elements under the glass; they were just coiled wires. Maybe they are all that way, I don't know. I cannot say I really miss it, but if I had any idea anybody might have wanted it I would have saved it somehow.
I have all the "cookmates" that came with, or were purchased at the time my mom got the cooktop. One thing that was found out early on was everything had to be perfect with your cookware to get the best results out of it. I also found the cast aluminum that worked very well. As expected when it took special care on what you used for pans and also anything spilled on it cooked on, its not surprising that so many of these went in the trash. I remember seeing several of the heating elements getting replaced over the years also.
twintubdexter
Well-known member
<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;">Are you talking about the original Corning cooktops that were white? Those looked very sharp although I've seen some that have not weathered time too well. Some are horribly discolored. I myself really like smooth-top surface units. I replaced the avocado GE cooktop in our old house (controls were in the hood) with a KitchenAid unit with halogen burners. I thought it was great. The top looked like speckled granite and was a breeze to keep spotless. I put in a Thermador gas cooktop in my current house (after the Jennair which had the burners at counter-top height and due to a slight stomach overhang caught a couple of my shirts on fire) is fine, except if you do a lot of cooking it can be a chore to keep looking new. Those star burners may look cute buy if you have a spill you need to scrub all those right angles with a brush, no just wiping clean with a damp cloth. And if you're a klutz like me and drop one of those cast iron grates on your porcelain tile floor they are very expensive to replace. It does have a red light that comes on when a burner is lit which is helpful for us oldsters.</span>
<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;">Someone mentioned Club Aluminum cookware. My Mom gave me her set when I moved into my first apartment. The food I cooked was usually speckled with little black flakes which I passed off to my guests as freshly ground pepper...a little Teflon never hurt anyone. </span>
<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;">This is as close as I get to smooth-top cooking today. A bargain at $12 for both pieces including the elusive cord.</span>
<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;">Someone mentioned Club Aluminum cookware. My Mom gave me her set when I moved into my first apartment. The food I cooked was usually speckled with little black flakes which I passed off to my guests as freshly ground pepper...a little Teflon never hurt anyone. </span>
<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;">This is as close as I get to smooth-top cooking today. A bargain at $12 for both pieces including the elusive cord.</span>
Corning elements- I seem to recall that the one general purpose burner at the rear right was a coil type burner and I believe the rest used a flat wire spread over a substrate.
If I were to go back to electric I'd get one of those induction type cooktops. But having to get new cookware to work with it would be a bit of an issue.
I do have a second range, a vintage Frigidaire Compact 30 drop-in electric out in the enclosed patio kitchen area. Rarely use that one, but it's there for parties, I suppose.
I do have a second range, a vintage Frigidaire Compact 30 drop-in electric out in the enclosed patio kitchen area. Rarely use that one, but it's there for parties, I suppose.
The evenness of the heating in the Corning Smooth Tops was due to the special construction of the heating elements with the thermostatic control and the cooktop being made of the same material as the cookware so they heat at the same rate, equal coefficient of heating or something. Pyroceram does not spread heat sideways very well so the mesh construction of the heating element under the cookware was a great solution. I do remember customers with the original cooktops, not the 3+1 later design, coming in looking to buy hotplates to use under their canners which was not a workable solution.
