Revere Ware Pots -- Stainless or Aluminum?

[rp2813]

When my parents were married in 1949, one of my aunts gave them a set of Revere Ware. Every piece is still hanging above the stove (the same one they got in 1949) and the copper bottoms have always been maintained. My mom would buy a special copper-cleaning powder much like cleanser and we would use it on the pot bottoms whenever we washed them. There is still a container of it under the kitchen sink. It's been many years since the Revere equipment has been used. It just hangs above the stove as decorative treatment. A small saucepan was loaned to a neighbor, probably in the 70's, and they never got it back. They replaced it with a new one and I noticed that on the older stuff, the bakelite handle assemblies were held together with screws. On the new saucepan, it was more like a rivet. That's one method I've used in gauging the age of a given Revere item, as I was not aware of the "process patent" verbiage.

I'm a non-stick kind of guy and never was inclined to use the Revere stuff once we had other options.

 

[Brent-Aucoin]

Thanks to everyone that replied, and educated me!
I feel better.
Also feel better because I learned that the set that we have, is the vintage set, and not the newer one. I had no idea that there was a difference in the newer vs. older.
Brent

 

[danemodsandy]

Brent:

"Also feel better because I learned that the set that we have, is the vintage set, and not the newer one. I had no idea that there was a difference in the newer vs. older."

Go to any thrift store, pick up a newer piece of Revere that does not say "Process Patent", and you will learn the difference in just one scorched meal!

 

[tomturbomatic]

Farberware's heavy aluminum base is more than electroplated to the stainless. They used a heat process to bond the aluminum to the stainless steel. If the pans were seriously overheated, the base would separate and stick to an electric surface unit. I remember the manager of the housewares department telling us how in the 1950s, when "waterless" cookware was all the rage, Farberware said that vegetables could be cooked the "waterless" way in their pans. A woman came into the housewares department with the 8" egg poacher skillet, but without the aluminum base. They politely asked her what the hell she had done to the pan. She explained that since Farberware could do "waterless" cooking, she had tried to poach eggs without any water in the bottom of the pan. One big disadvantage to Farber pans other than the skillets, at least in the original design, was that the base of the pans is concave when cool. The arch flattens out when heated, but if you are boiling water the base does not heat up enough to flatten completely so it's not as efficient on an electric unit. The skillets heat up enough in normal use to flatten perfectly. I really like the Revere Ware with the thick aluminum base. They sit flat on a surface unit and distribute the heat very evenly. I use two of the 4 qt. saucepans for making candy and they perform beautifully. I brought all of the family's old Revere to my house when we sold the house. I loved using the 12" chicken fryer. It was great for stewing squash and onions, but the heat had to be kept on low to keep it from sticking.

The thing that did in Revere Copper and Brass works was the damn aluminum ore mines one company president bought. The cost of operating the mines bled the company dry and no attempt at aluminum cookware got off the ground. I remember when the price of copper went so high starting in the mid 60s and to save money, Revere came out with the "deep drawn" saucepans in the late 60s. The narrower diameter of the 1.5 and 2 quart saucepans meant they could use less copper. The narrower pans did not cover a 6 inch surface unit nor did they allow much of a flame under them because it would spread out and go right up the side if turned higher. It is very unfortunate that such a prestigious company was forced to take such measures.

One of the rarest pieces of Revere Ware has to be the deep well kettle they introduced in 1941. Unil I saw some post-war literature, I had no idea that it even went into production, let alone continued into the later 1940s. So far, I have managed, over the years, to find the pieces that interested me so I guess that sometime one of these will be sent into my life.

 

[peterh770]

Brent,

How much of your Revereware was made in NY and how much in IL?

 

[danemodsandy]

Tomturbomatic:

"One big disadvantage to Farber pans other than the skillets, at least in the original design, was that the base of the pans is concave when cool. The arch flattens out when heated, but if you are boiling water the base does not heat up enough to flatten completely so it's not as efficient on an electric unit. The skillets heat up enough in normal use to flatten perfectly."

All I can tell you is that all of my Farberware heats so efficiently that I must use very low range settings. Even the largest pieces I own will simmer on the very lowest setting of my gas range. That's not much of an accomplishment with a 2-quart saucepan, but it is when you're talking the 12-quart stockput. The range is a regular home range, not a commercial model.

 

[danemodsandy]

P.S.:

I've had exactly the same experience on electric; the Farberware stuff heats efficiently and evenly on that, too.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Mom used to simmer the 6 qt Revere Dutch Oven full of spaghetti sauce on the 4 little ears of flame on the Harper-Wyman center simmer flame on our Crown gas stove, but I am not talking about simmering. I am talking about a pan of cold water whether for pasta or vegetables being brought to a boil over high heat. I did not say that the Farberware did not cook evenly, but if you pick up a sauce pan or wider sauce pot in which you are trying to boil water and can see the inner coils of the element glowing, that means they are not in contact with the center of the pan's base. The newer pans with the aluminum base covered by the stainless steel plate start flat and stay flat. Earlier, Farberware was coping with the different rates of expansion between stainless steel and aluminum when heated. It's great cookware and I have a large collection bought in the 70s, but modern cookware construction processes have made more efficient aluminum bases on stainless steel pans. I especially love the Farberware 12 inch skillet, not to slight the 10, 8 or 6 inch skillets either. When Farber briefly made the stainless steel skillets with the black non-stick lining, I bought the 12 inch in that also. For some things like Hash Brown Potatoes, where the shredded potatoes form a solid mat as they fry, a skillet with sloping sides makes it easier to get a spatula under them to turn them over unless you don't completely cover the bottom of the pan.

In the late 70s or early 80s, Consumer Reports tested cookware and the way that they tested for even heating was to heat a 10 inch skillet over medium-low heat and sprinkle sugar in the bottom. In the best cookware, like Farberware, the sugar melted and turned golden evenly. In the poorer skillets, some areas of the sugar turned black before all of it melted.

Farberware's handles are very elegant, but the shape of the handles on Revere Ware are just more comfortable in my hands.

 

[danemodsandy]

Tom:

Farberware has recently introduced slant-sided pans in its new clad-disc construction; I have both the 8" and 10" versions. I also have the 3-quart saucier in that construction. They're all very nice, and it's certainly amazing to me as someone who spent years dealing with cookware professionally to see clad-disc construction (introduced by Cuisinart and costing a fortune back then) used on popular-price cookware. The clad-disc Farberware I have performs quite well. But guess what? The old alumimium-clad stuff performs even better, due to the lack of a stainless layer covering the aluminium; stainless is a perfectly dreadful conductor of heat. The old stuff heats faster, and loses heat more rapidly when the heat is turned off (this characteristic is called "responsivity"). The rationale for clad-disc technology was that you didn't have to clean a bottom layer of copper or aluminium, the way you did with Revere or vintage Farberware. Cuisinart sold a bunch of people on the idea, that's for sure.

The Farberware handle has always been a bit of a problem for some people. Its single-screw attachment has been widely criticised for working loose over time, though a moment's work with a screwdriver will tighten it again. What was always odd about the situation was that some consumers' handles seemed always to be loosening themselves, and others never had the slightest trouble. I've never had a problem, myself.