The Pros and Cons of Cooking with Copper Pans

🔑 Copper cookware is popular due to its beauty and excellent heat conductivity.

⚠️ Copper bowls are traditionally used for beating egg whites, as copper ions react with proteins to create a stable foam.

❗ Pure solid copper cookware can be potentially dangerous due to its chemical reactivity.

Copper pans may affect the foam stability of whipped egg whites due to copper ions bonding with sulfur groups.

Using copper bowls or adding cream of tartar and lemon juice can achieve a similar effect to using copper pans.

Copper's affinity for sulfur is one reason why it is used in distilling alcohol.

Copper pans are commonly used in distillation to remove sulfur compounds from the distillate.

Sulfur compounds in the distillate can affect the taste of brandy.

Copper is chosen for stills because it is a good conductor of heat and easy to work with.

🔑 Copper is the first metal used by humans and is malleable and ductile.

⚠️ Contact with acidic food can cause copper to leech into the food, which can be toxic in excessive doses.

🍺 The Moscow Mule cocktail served in a copper mug can be a health concern due to copper leeching.

🔬 A study in the journal Environmental Health supports the need for caution with copper cookware.

🔑 Copper mugs can extract dangerous levels of copper from drinks.

🥃 Drinking from unlined copper mugs can be harmful.

❄️ Copper mugs are more thermally conductive than other materials.

🍲 Copper pans are great heat conductors and can enhance the taste of drinks.

🥄 The metallic taste experienced from copper may be due to its interaction with proteins in saliva.

🍳 Traditionally, copper pans were lined with tin, but now they are often lined with stainless steel.

🔥 Copper pans heat up quickly and evenly, making them ideal for cooking sugar-based dishes without hot spots or burning.

💰 Although copper pans are more expensive than aluminum or stainless steel, they are almost twice as thermally conductive as aluminum and can achieve the same results with a thinner layer.

💡 While silver is the most thermally conductive metal, copper pans are a more affordable option compared to solid silver pans.