Recently bought a copper pan with old tinning. Should this be retinned?
Yes?
I believe that it would be stripped further to get to the Copper and then re-tinned
Nice pan.
It’s hard to tell, but my guess is it’s been years–maybe many–since this pan was used or cleaned. I think what I’m seeing in your photos is verdegris, which isn’t a great sign. However, your tin itself doesn’t look all that bad. You’re probably dealing mostly with non-toxic tin oxide, which is why it looks chalky.
I’ll depart from my usual advice against scouring. What I suggest you do is first wash the pan, and somewhat aggressively scour with soap and a BLUE scrubbie. Start on the walls and see if the color lightens up any–it should certainly remove the verdegris. If that works, do the same on the floor.
If it doesn’t lighten it, do it again, this time with Bon Ami, and go lighter with the scrubbie.
After that, put it under bright light, and look for exposed copper. If you see none, or you see a total area smaller than a US quarter, wash it again and you’re fine to use it.
If, when you come back to it, you find it is showing specks of green again, you can choose to scrub again or retin. As long as you’re not cooking with visible verdegris in the pan, you’re safe.
Enjoy that pan.
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It needs tinning.
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Clean it first. You have nothing to lose.
