And when I do happen across an indie store they generally do not carry much that interests me. No tinned copper, very little carbon steel, no tinned steel, no Pillivuyt, and not even much wood. Lots of gimmicks, often involving silicone, and small appliances.
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Definitely. The consumer smallwares market, typified by OXO, has become sort of a crutch for many indie stores. Cutsie towels, potholders and cookbooks don’t do it for me. I keep waiting for an “All the Best” store (B&M or online) that would stock 2-3 solid choices for all-around kitchen tools.
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Just try to find a good wooden salad bowl anywhere- the kind that will actually last a lifetime. No one wants one. They have no idea how great a big wooden bowl is. (I recently steered my Caesar salad loving old co-worker to a site where he happily ordered a big ‘ol bowl to replace one that got waylaid during a move - not cheap - and I guarantee not findable in a store around him. He was happy to spend the money.I was shocked that he did.).The other stuff you mentioned I’ve already accrued - except for small appliances, of which I have very few. Mercifully. Silicone mats do help me grip and unscrew things, I will admit.
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OXO was founded on an admirable principle - universal usability design. They lost their way many moons ago. And you can’t even wrest most of their stuff from its packaging.
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I like the Joseph Joseph line.
OXO is like an off-puttingly huge plate of food at Claim Jumper to me. But the few remaining Indie stores feel compelled to offer it.
Too bad Joseph Joseph didn’t make this:
I’d like one without the knives.* Because.
*I can supply my own.
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I have one OXO item, a can opener. It is hard to use. I wish I had gotten the Maxi Kim.
I have 2 can openers, both manual, neither is OXO. One is a Rösle, which removes the top by peeling the seal (and i like it because it only has one “arm” and doesn’t tale up space in the drawer)and the other is a good old fashioned Swing Away. I do have a small-size OXO salad spinner. I haven’t used it in years.
A propos of nothing, my grandparents had a can opener mounted on the doorway on the kitchen. It wasn’t an OXO, but you always knew where it was.
Now that I have used it a bit, it has become a favorite pan. Anything is fine for reheating but not everything is fine for delicate things like Bernaise. This is so much easier than getting a double boiler going. My ancient Waldow double boiler is close, not quite there, to becoming that worst of all cookware categories, ornaments.
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Fits like an old shoe. Enjoy!
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I was in Jerome, AZ a few weeks ago, and we saw a little copper shop that I was less than enthused about. The fish mold made me think " cheap stuff . " Wife and mom wanted to stop, though. Beautiful tinned copper, and the guy retins. Prices weren’t crazy, either. I came close but didn’t buy. One of the few indies that had something I like, tho.
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Fantastic. Does this place have a name?
Mexico once had a very developed coppersmithing tradition. I wonder if there’s some connection.
Merci!
The Waldow BM that I, you?, and thousands still have was one of Waldow’s last death rattles coming out of WW2. People (read housewives) only wanted Revereware-thin/light.
The Waldow piece I want–but don’t need–is their rotary triple BM. Supposedly Hammersmith/Jeff Herkes still has all the extensive Waldow tooling, so I guess anything could still be made.
My Waldow bain Marie is small. I use it to make sauces or eggs for just the two of us.
How about pentuple?
https://www.reddit.com/r/Coppercookware/comments/13pzgnh/waldow_lazy_susan_five_pot_bain_marie/
Yeah!
I doubt I would ever go there, but I could see it getting a lot of use for taco ingredients for football and basketball games. You could keep three meats (or two and a vegetarian option like squash, peppers, and potatoes), frijoles, and chili con queso hot.
Definitely a tailgating showstopper.
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