Aluminum Pots and Pans

Ladies' Mirror, Volume V, Issue 6, 1 December 1926, Page 104

Aluminum Pots and Pans

W hen choosing^ pots and pans—whether a complete set for the new home or merely renewals—the modern housewife has a wide and almost bewildering variety from which to make her choice, and is in a very different position to her grandmother, who was forced to choose from a very limited selection. During the last few years cooking utensils made of aluminium have become more and more popular, and in this article it is proposed to consider this variety only. They undoubtedly possess many advantages, and are particularly suitable for gas cooking-stoves; they are lighta most important point, especially for larger pans; they are now comparatively cheap, and they are easily cleaned. One most important point in favour of aluminium utensils is that they are very safe, as no injurious salts are formed as a result of cooking food in them. It is, however, advisable to buy good-quality pans of pure aluminium, for cheap goods are sometimes made from inferior aluminium and may contain other undesirable metals. A few words regarding the cleaning of aluminium may not be amiss here. Everybody now realises that on on account must soda be used; for hot soda-water acts on the aluminium, gradually dissolving it. Fine steel wool cleans aluminium very satisfactorily. If the pans become discoloured—as they generally do when used for heating hard water, and especially when used for cooking eggs—it is a good plan to fill them with some weak harmless acid and bring it to a boil. Vinegar answers the purpose admirably, or if squeezed lemon or apple parings are available they may be used, for, as readers may have noticed, when fruit is stewed in a discoloured aluminium saucepan the dark stain disappears. This stain is harmless, but the appearance of the pan is hardly improved by it, and therefore most housewives remove it.

Aluminium utensils are manufactured from the metal in various ways; they may either be spun, stamped, or cast. , Spun aluminium pans are made on a spinner’s lathe: a sheet of aluminium is placed against the blank and the article shaped by means of a drafting tool. Stamped pans are perhaps of most general utility, and are superior to the spun article mainly on account of their greater uniformity of thickness and the absence of both accidental, and occasionally intentional, thinness in parts, such as is apt to occur in the spun variety. With the latter it is comparatively easy to deceive the buyer as the rims appear thick, whereas the more imporportant base may be a good deal thinner. Stamped aluminium articles pass through a series of machines before even the simplest is complete. In these machines they are subjected to pressure varying according to the thickness of the aluminium. Of the three types, cast aluminium is not very generally used, but possesses a possible advantage over the other two in that a thicker pan can be manufactured. It is, therefore, especially convenient for large pans, subjected to hard use, which would become misshapen if made of thin metal. Pans made from cast aluminium are, however, expensive, as their manufacture involves complicated processes in making a smooth surface afterwards. Another advantage is that, as cast pans are not subjected to any pressure during the process of manufacture, the cast metal is much more porous and open, and more apt to become “pitted,” than the rolled metal used for spun and stamped articles. The melted aluminium is moulded in a “fand,” and allowed to stand a few minutes, when the “fand” is opened and the aluminium contracts while cooling. The “trimmings,” as the handles, knobs, and so forth are technically called, are worth a few moments’

attention. The handles should be firmly fixed and either made of some good conducting material or else of metal, rolled and hollo'w inside : in the latter case, the air enclosed, being a poor conductor of beat, helps to keep the handle cool. A Wooden handle is rally to be preferred, its only disadvantage being that a careless cook might allow the gas flame to lick round the sides of the pan, and so, not only waste gas, but also possibly burn the handle.

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