I know I ruined the tin lining of my English teakettle using B soda and vinegar to get out the hard water scale that had built up inside. The tinning came off! Now I can’t use my battered-but-beuatiful old tea kettle.

The most effective way to get the tarnish off copper, that I know of, is a product called “Twinkle”. This is a greenish paste, sold at most hardware stores as well as gourmet stores like Sur La Table. Rinse the pot in hot water, wipe on the Twinkle, the tarnish will immediately disappear or be reduced, rub with more paste on the tough parts. A jar of this stuff costs about $4 and will last months or years depending on how often you use your copper pots. It will probably get your pots shinier than they are in the “after” picture.

I have a lot of copper pots, most bought in France on various trips, that I cook with daily. They are all still shiny, due to frequent applications of Twinkle.

Also, given the age of those pots they are probably tinned, meaning the inside is lined with tin that was melted and poured into the pot. Cooking with bare copper is not good for you, hence the lining. If needed, you can get the pots re-tinned, and usually they can be repolished at the same time. Its not cheap, though.

On the other hand, I have a few copper-bottomed pots that I *do* cook with that drive me bananas because I can’t keep them shiny. Hmmmm… Could be the heat that tarnishes, except that wouldn’t explain the tarnish on those beautiul copper canisters. Double hmmmm…..

Those are a lovely bunch of pots, though. What a treat to inherit something beautiful and useful.

i’m with everyone else! i’d have looked for
copper cleaner in the grocery store vs the lemons
and salt! but then i’m lazy! ;)

(For sure don’t try to cook anything acidic in them, especially if they are older.)