VINTAGE CORNINGWARE

5/7/07

I have found that these are still attainable at reasonable cost $.50-7.00! at yard sales and swap meets. I fancy the white background and have come to appreciate the variety of styles (color) these came in. Yellow seems to be hard to find. I have found 2 in great shape; however they are electric. All the electric elements I found are tested and work well through the entire cycle, automatically going to a keep warm mode. This is so important for fresh ground premium coffee taste and body. Perculating on the stove top is somewhat of an art with this pot.

I have found that you must block out distraction, set a timer to remind you of the perculator. I set my gas range to below medium heat or lower (depending on the size of pot as I have a 4-cup and six cup pot as well). Once the perk gets going well and you start to smell, then I start counting time. Approximately 1 minute per cup or less (depending on preference of strength). While this is going on you can prepare your table or other items for snack, etc. Once the time is up on the perk, remove from heat and the residual heat will continue to perk, let settle down for a few minutes before pouring, any grains that got out will fall to the bottom and settle down, so don’t be so rough when pouring. Any left over coffee I refrigerate in the pot in the fridge, reheat or serve ice coffee!! If strong use in another receipe. For all my dinner parties I used the electric and coffee was always perfectly hot for desert.

The electric pot is band on for safety issues while the inners are still allowed, and that’s nice, and you can still find the recall online. Use is at my own risk. Living in California Bay area I had to have electric for back up to gas. My thought was if the gas gets shut off perhaps somewhere I could find a functioning outlet for electric perk , lol(sounds pretty desperate, but that TJs coffee is worth it).

Cleaning: I like to use hot soapy water, clean or rinse asap after use. When I find a very stained perculator I use warm water and 1 cap full of bleach, soak for few minutes until stain is alleviated, rinse and dry well. Even the ovenware is easy to clean at times. Sometime I just need to soak in hot soapy water, dishwashing liquid and for really hard crusted on matter I add table spoon of bleach. The problem with bleach and dishwashing liquid is when the water is real hot it makes stronger fumes. Get so back off, open window or use cooler water, of course follow mfg instructions at all times, and wear gloves.

Memories: When I was in junior high school I had a friend who lived in a really nice neighborhood and her mom was a teacher. I thought, wow, you had to be wealthy to afford corningware items and they looked so simple yet pretty. Now pyrex and corningware are my preference in microwave cooking/reheating.

Vintage Corningware cassarole dishes are great from oven to table and really hold the heat well. I love the mixing bowls with the handle pour spout; i.e., the large pink princess bowl I have…I have brown, green and yellow, perfect for that small family batch of homemade biscuit dough or box browny mix from TJs

NEVER AGAIN USE PLASTIC IN MICROWAVE for health reasons…Is there a connection to increased CA rate and use of plastics in microwave generation? do your own research.

I think my next guide will be on tea, whole leaf of course and vintage tea party tips?

Reminder: Don’t let your belly become a god.