Mystery Cookware

CameronMac007 · Monday at 6:37 AM

Hello Everyone,
I have been clearing my mother's loft and I came across two items of cookware (see photos).
I'm not sure what these are for or what they are called.
Can anyone help?
Many thanks.
Cameron

msmofet · Monday at 7:14 AM

Welcome to DC.

msmofet · Monday at 7:15 AM

The long one is a whole fish poacher.

Picture from Amazon

msmofet · Monday at 7:19 AM

The other one looks like some sort of cake maker. Maybe a steamer.

Aunt Bea · Monday at 7:25 AM

The hose and nipple on the round one makes me think that it’s some sort of steam juicer.

CameronMac007 · Monday at 7:51 AM

msmofet said:
The long one is a whole fish poacher.

Picture from Amazon

View attachment 71061

Hi msmofet,
Very many thanks for your welcome to DC.
Someone had suggested to me that it might be a fish poacher but wasn't sure. I'm glad to have it confirmed that it is indeed a fish poacher (and thank you for the Amazing photos).
Kind regards,
Cameron

CameronMac007 · Monday at 7:55 AM

msmofet said:
The other one looks like some sort of cake maker. Maybe a steamer.

I was guessing that it might be a streamer of some sort, but I don't think I would have guessed that it might be for making cakes!
Once again, many thanks for your response.

CameronMac007 · Monday at 8:00 AM

Aunt Bea said:
The hose and nipple on the round one makes me think that it’s some sort of steam juicer.

Hello Aunt Bea,
Many thanks for your reply. I had guessed that it might be for streaming but wasn't sure what it how.
Msmofet has suggested it might be for cakes!
With any luck someone might recognise it and solve the mystery!
Kind regards,
Cameron

dragnlaw · Monday at 8:19 AM

Could the cake steamer be for Christmas pudding types? that was my first thought looking at the picture. Although it seems to be incredibly tall, so I'm not sure.

Also my first thought on the Fish Poacher is it looks brand new! Very nice.

jennyema · Monday at 8:34 AM

Fish poacher for sure

blissful · Monday at 9:07 AM

The first one looks like a steam juicer, like @Aunt Bea suggested.
Here is a picture of one on ebay.

Vtg Berndes Aluminum&glass 9.5 Qt Steamer Steam-Juicer Canner Stove Top Germany | eBay

Vintage juice steamer by Berndes 9.5 quart 9 liter Made in Germany...

www.ebay.com

The fruit goes in the top basket, water boils in the bottom section. The juice collects in the middle basket and drains through the rubber tubing into a pan or container.

dragnlaw · Monday at 9:30 AM

You guys sure nailed it!
Of course now I remember I saw one like that when I was looking at the water steamers.

Linda0818 · Monday at 4:32 PM

blissful said:
The first one looks like a steam juicer, like @Aunt Bea suggested.
Here is a picture of one on ebay.

Vtg Berndes Aluminum&glass 9.5 Qt Steamer Steam-Juicer Canner Stove Top Germany | eBay

Vintage juice steamer by Berndes 9.5 quart 9 liter Made in Germany...

www.ebay.com

The fruit goes in the top basket, water boils in the bottom section. The juice collects in the middle basket and drains through the rubber tubing into a pan or container.

So this would basically be a juicer before the days of modern ones? Otherwise, I don't get the purpose for such a contraption. Seems a little overkill'ish to me, but then it may have been useful at one time.

dragnlaw · Monday at 4:58 PM

I remember reading up on it when I first saw them. To my way of thinking not quite the same as a juicer. I mean, yes, they are juicing the fruit but the fruit will be much more clear than from a centrifugal time of grinder/juicer. I had a juicer once and no matter what you put in the juice is cloudy. The steam extracts clear.
If I remember correctly. But I'm sure 'back in the day' it probably had more than one use.

Linda0818 · Monday at 5:18 PM

dragnlaw said:
I remember reading up on it when I first saw them. To my way of thinking not quite the same as a juicer. I mean, yes, they are juicing the fruit but the fruit will be much more clear than from a centrifugal time of grinder/juicer. I had a juicer once and no matter what you put in the juice is cloudy. The steam extracts clear.
If I remember correctly. But I'm sure 'back in the day' it probably had more than one use.

That's true. No doubt it was used for more than just juicing.

I had a juicer once. And I think once was all I ever used it. It sat in the "appliance graveyard" for so long that I ended up just throwing it out because I knew I'd never use it again. It took loads of fruit just to make one tiny glassful. Wasn't worth it to me. One of the most useless appliances I ever owned.

blissful · Monday at 5:37 PM

Linda0818 said:
So this would basically be a juicer before the days of modern ones? Otherwise, I don't get the purpose for such a contraption. Seems a little overkill'ish to me, but then it may have been useful at one time.

No, this is used today for making clear juice. Let's say you want to make a clear jelly from raspberries, you put the berries in, get the clear juice out, now you can make jelly. Blueberries, blackberries, strawberries.....probably lots of fruit.

Linda0818 · Monday at 5:58 PM

blissful said:
No, this is used today for making clear juice. Let's say you want to make a clear jelly from raspberries, you put the berries in, get the clear juice out, now you can make jelly. Blueberries, blackberries, strawberries.....probably lots of fruit.

Oh! Well that makes a little more sense, then. Especially if the juice needs to be completely clear of debris and whatnot.

Gotcha

blissful · Monday at 7:12 PM

Thank goodness for Oklahoma, they have a demonstration video of the juice extractor and it mentions making jelly.

Extracting Juice for Jelly - Oklahoma State University

Learn how to extract juice from different kinds of fruit using a steam juice extractor to use in jelly.

extension.okstate.edu

taxlady · Monday at 10:06 PM

I have only made clear jelly once. I made mint jelly, which was just apple jelly with a couple of crushed mint leaves waved around in the hot apple jelly and then discarded. Making that clear juice using a jelly bag was a PITA. A steam juicer would have been much easier.

This is what a more modern jelly bag can look like. I used one in the 1980s and the bag was made of cotton. It was a real nuisance to clean afterwards. I don't remember why I even had one.

dragnlaw · 2024-10-15T06:57:08-0400

I used cheese cloth to strain fruit for jelly. Cooked fruit piled onto several layers of cloth. The corners gathered up & knotted leaving loops through which you slid a broom handle. The handle hung between the back of 2 chairs, a bowl below to catch the juices. '
The most difficult of that method was NOT to squeeze the bag to extract as much juice as possible.
Toss the cloth after!
I believe the diagrams were in one of the original Joy of Cooking cookbooks.

Mystery Cookware

Assistant Cook

Attachments

Chef Extraordinaire

Chef Extraordinaire

Chef Extraordinaire

Master Chef

Assistant Cook

Assistant Cook

Assistant Cook

Site Team

Chef Extraordinaire

Master Chef

Site Team

Head Chef

Site Team

Head Chef

Master Chef

Head Chef

Master Chef

Chef Extraordinaire

Site Team

Similar threads