You Didn’t Want Copper
First thing’s first: This pan ain’t copper. Yes it’s got “Copper” in the name and yes the inside looks like copper, but it’s not. It’s made of aluminum and stainless steel with a nonstick ceramic coating.
That’s a feature, however, not a bug. You might think you want a complete collection of copper pans hanging from your rustic kitchen walls like you’ve seen in Dwell, but you really don’t.
Sure, copper features superior thermal conductivity — that’s its main attraction. So if you’re preparing a delicate candy and require a temperature of 118.3 degrees rather than 118.9 degrees, you can adjust the heat under your copper pot and see an immediate, uniform change in the temperature of its contents. And we’ve all bemoaned the protracted, heterogenous temperature change in our delicate candies, right?
Also, copper cookware costs a lot. A solid copper pan this size would cost several times as much for marginal culinary improvement. Plus it requires constant, nit-picky care and burnishing to keep it fit for Dwell. You have to hand-wash and hand-dry it lest it oxidize like the Statue of Liberty.
The final nail in the coffin: Copper is highly reactive with food. You don’t have to be a chemist to understand that’s not ideal. Most consumer copper pots are lined with stainless steel (which is expensive) or tin (which is cheap but wears off and requires regular re-tinning).
So this pan isn’t copper, and you should be glad. It’s a versatile, mostly aluminum affair with some nifty attachments that will help you cook real food, not a hundred-dollar accent piece for your kitchen wall.
