Question from Gina
I am snowed in today and had the chance to look over your site more in-depth. Thanks for the section on how you live! I found it exciting and helpful to see that it can be done in a conventional house! I’m especially excited about the wool bedding and the copper cookware. I’m just starting to think about buying a new set and had been considering stainless steel until I read what you said about copper.
My question is about the tin coating on the Ruffoni. I called my father when I read about it and he said that it would oxidize. (“think of what happens to a tin can.”) Since you actually use it, I wondered if you could tell me if that is the case and what you do to prevent/deal with it.
Also, just fyi, I did a search on the Ruffoni cookware and found several sites that have pretty good pricing. Ruffoni’s own site is offering the 10 piece set on sale for 1400 something (normally 1700 something) and I found it at buycoppercookware.com for 1095. That’s a considerable discount. I’m not sure how that compares to Williams Sonoma, but I didn’t see a full cookware set on their site.
Debra’s Answer
Your post was very timely, as I was just about to add a comment to My New Cookware regarding my Ruffoni pots.
Before I purchased this cookware, I read an article which said there were two types of copper pots–a heavier pot for cooking and a lighter weight pot that is mainly used for serving.
Williams-Sonoma does have a full set of Mauviel copper cookware, but not Ruffoni. Mauviel is very heavy, which is why I didn’t buy that one. The Ruffoni is much easier to handle.
Prior to puchasing the Ruffoni, I asked the salesperson about the tin lining. They said it would last about five years and then need to be retinned.
Well…that was not the case. I’ve had my two Ruffoni tin-lined pots five months and already the tin was wearing through to where we could see the copper. Just last week we took the pots back to Williams-Sonoma and they exchanged both pots for new ones.
We learned a few things about these pots. You need to cook only over medium heat, You need to remove the food immediately, so you can’t store food in it in the refrigerator. Once you are done cooking, you actually need to wash the pot immediately because even one piece of vegetable will begin to wear away the tin.
