Cookware and bakeware

Some pots and their lids have handles or knobs made of low thermal conductance materials such as bakelite, plastic or wood, which make them easy to pick up without oven gloves.

Bamboo tubes sealed at the end with clay provided a usable container in Asia, while the inhabitants of the Tehuacan Valley began carving large stone bowls that were permanently set into a hearth as early as 7,000 BC.

According to Frank Hamilton Cushing, Native American cooking baskets used by the Zuni (Zuñi) developed from mesh casings woven to stabilize gourd water vessels.

[5] Native Americans would form a basket from large leaves to boil water, according to historian and novelist Louis L'Amour.

[citation needed] The development of pottery allowed for the creation of fireproof cooking vessels in a variety of shapes and sizes.

[7] At the 1968 Miss America protest, protestors symbolically threw a number of feminine products into a "Freedom Trash Can", which included pots and pans.

While metal pots take heat very well, they usually react poorly to rapid cooling, such as being plunged into water while hot, this will usually warp the piece over time.

It is used, for example, to make Dutch ovens lightweight and bundt pans heavy duty, and used in ladles and handles and woks to keep the sides at a lower temperature than the center.

Pots and pans are cold-formed from copper sheets of various thicknesses, with those in excess of 2.5 mm considered commercial (or extra-fort) grade.

Less than 1mm wall thickness is generally considered decorative, with exception made for the case of .75–1 mm planished copper, which is hardened by hammering and therefore expresses performance and strength characteristic of thicker material.

Copper thickness of less than .25 mm is, in the case of cookware, referred to as foil and must be formed to a more structurally rigid metal to produce a serviceable vessel.

Although the patent for canning in sheet tin was secured in 1810 in England, legendary French chef Auguste Escoffier experimented with a solution for provisioning the French army while in the field by adapting the tin lining techniques used for his cookware to more robust steel containers (then only lately introduced for canning) which protected the cans from corrosion and soldiers from lead solder and botulism poisoning.

[16] Decorative copper cookware, i.e., a pot or pan less than 1 mm thick and therefore unsuited to cooking, will often be electroplate lined with tin.

Should a wiped tin lining be damaged or wear out the cookware can be re-tinned, usually for much less cost than the purchase price of the pan.

Silver is also applied to copper by means of electroplating, and provides an interior finish that is at once smooth, more durable than either tin or nickel, relatively non-stick and extremely thermally efficient.

Stainless steel forms a pan's structural element when bonded to copper and is irreparable in the event of wear or damage.

Being a reactive material, cast iron can have chemical reactions with high acid foods such as wine or tomatoes.

Seasoning creates a thin layer of oxidized fat over the iron that coats and protects the surface from corrosion, and prevents sticking.

Although the Doufeu (literally, "gentlefire") can be used in an oven (without the ice, as a casserole pan), it is chiefly designed for stove top use.

Carbon-steel cookware can be rolled or hammered into relatively thin sheets of dense material, which provides robust strength and improved heat distribution.

Like cast iron, carbon steel must be seasoned before use, usually by rubbing a fat or oil on the cooking surface and heating the cookware on the stovetop or in the oven.

With proper use and care, seasoning oils polymerize on carbon steel to form a low-tack surface, well-suited to browning, Maillard reactions and easy release of fried foods.

This creates a piece that has the heat distribution and retention properties of cast iron combined with a non-reactive, low-stick surface.

Seasoning is the process of treating the surface of a cooking vessel with a dry, hard, smooth, hydrophobic coating formed from polymerized fat or oil.

Some form of post-manufacturing treatment or end-user seasoning is mandatory on cast-iron cookware, which rusts rapidly when heated in the presence of available oxygen, notably from water, even small quantities such as drippings from dry meat.

Other cookware surfaces such as stainless steel or cast aluminium do not require as much protection from corrosion but seasoning is still very often employed by professional chefs to avoid sticking.

Using metal implements, harsh scouring pads, or chemical abrasives can damage or destroy cooking surface.

Rigid non metallic cookware tends to shatter on sudden cooling or uneven heating, although low expansion materials such as borosilicate glass and glass-ceramics have significant immunity.

Historically some glazes used on ceramic articles contained levels of lead, which can possess health risks; although this is not a concern with the vast majority of modern ware.

This rubbery material should not be confused with the silicone resin used to make hard, shatterproof children's dishware, which is not suitable for baking.