Kooky copper clad cooking.

Remember when I used to post wacky recipes from promotional pamphlets I'd inherited, like the Coca-Cola or Creamette pasta cookbooks? No? Well, you can find links to all of them at the last one I profiled here, when I thought I'd reached the end of the cookbook line. 

Well, I found another one.

This one was filed with product manuals rather than on the cookbook shelf, and what a surprise! It has recipes!

Yes, the Revere Ware Copper Clad Collection pan book came into the family many years ago along with the pan itself. The booklet has care information for your genuine copper bottomed pan, but also contains 20 recipes. The booklet is not dated, but going by the condition of the pages, the typefaces used, and the presence of a zip code, I'd guess this came out in the late 70's.

As you might guess, the recipes are almost all egg-related. Here's one that caught my eye, but is unlikely to ever get hold of my stomach:

Yeah, nah, I don't think so. Not a big chicken liver guy. 

I'm glad to say we still have the pan:

Ta da!

Definitely a good quality pan. Perfect depth for many uses, mainly omelets of course, and has put up with abuse from me and others through the years. You could do a nice job whacking someone in the face with it in a pinch, too; lightweight but strong.  

We don't use it for eggs that much, because when we make a batch of scrambled eggs we will do half a dozen at a time, and that's too much for this pan. What it is also totally awesome for, though, is toasting spices quickly to bring forth their flavor. Works beautifully and makes the kitchen smell awesome.  

Alas, the history of Revere Ware is not nearly as shiny as the pan itself. It was a branch of the Revere Copper Company, founded by American legend Paul Revere in 1801. Wiki says, "Initially Revere Ware was the culmination of various innovative techniques developed during the 1930s, the most popular being construction of stainless steel with rivetlessly attached bakelite handles, copper-clad bases and rounded interiors for ease of cleaning." But the company fell to hard times, like everyone, in the seventies, and started getting aluminum from foreign sources; by 1982 the company was bankrupt, and then bought by Corning, which sailed it along like the Titanic, and by 2018 Revere Ware was gone.

In case you were wondering, yes, here is the copper bottom:

The trademark, once stamped on all these pans, is almost entirely scratched off from use and can barely be seen. 

Since Revere Ware is no more, I'm thinking of adopting "Copper Bottom" as my nickname. Like FDR's pal Hugh "Iron Pants" Johnson, Fred "Copper Bottom" Key could be a man to be reckoned with. It goes with the Key name, and might help me peddle Fredcoin! And hey, Revere Ware's not around anymore to sue.