# Bought these copper pans from the charity shop, what's inside them?



## livingonbeans (Oct 10, 2014)

Hi there,

So today I saw these copper pans at my local charity shop and really liked the look of them. They have the stamp Apiol - Made in Portugal on the bottom.

Anyway my question is, what are these pans lined with, how do I clean them, and are they safe to cook with? 

I've put a couple of photos below, as you can see I've cleaned the smaller one up with some ketchup on the outside and its come up 10x better, however is showing a copper finish of the bolts on the inside of the pan, is this ok?

A couple of the bigger pans I haven't cleaned yet, and have some black marks on the inside, as well as some scratching.

Any insight to what I've acquired and how to clean/use them would be great.



Thanks in advance!
Danny


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## Aunt Bea (Oct 10, 2014)

Take a look at this!

Use & Care of Tinned Metals


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## livingonbeans (Oct 10, 2014)

thanks for that, so do you think they are tin?


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## forty_caliber (Oct 10, 2014)

livingonbeans said:


> thanks for that, so do you think they are tin?



No doubt about it...tin lined copper.

.40


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## GLC (Oct 11, 2014)

Tin lined and not in bad shape. They can be relined, but it's fairly expensive. So avoid scraping around with metal utensils and scrubbing with abrasives. I use Bar Keeper's Friend on lined pans. For that matter, I use it on all pans to minimize scratching that encourages sticking. Nice score. Not the best heavy copper, but most Portugese stuff is okay. At least it's not the fake cookware that's really base metal with a copper plating on the outside.


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## 95Austin12 (Feb 1, 2016)

Seems useful. Thanks for sharing here, Aunt Bea.


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## Bigjim68 (Feb 1, 2016)

GLC said:


> Tin lined and not in bad shape. They can be relined, but it's fairly expensive. So avoid scraping around with metal utensils and scrubbing with abrasives. I use Bar Keeper's Friend on lined pans. For that matter, I use it on all pans to minimize scratching that encourages sticking. Nice score. Not the best heavy copper, but most Portugese stuff is okay. At least it's not the fake cookware that's really base metal with a copper plating on the outside.



IMO BKF is too abrasive to be used on tin lining.    The best care is to avoid any metal utensils.  Soaking the pan after use will get the interior clean.

On the exterior I use Wrights Copper Cream.  Cheap, available and gets the job done.  There are many other cleaners.  Ketchup and lemon/salt will also work to a lesser degree.


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