Tin-plate vessels are cleanly and convenient; but, unless carefully dried after washing, they will soon rust in holes.
Iron coal-scoops are liable to rust from the damp of the coals.
If cold water be thrown on cast-iron when hot (as the back of a grate), it will crack. Cast-iron articles are brittle, and cannot be repaired.
The tinning of copper-saucepans should be kept perfect, clean, and dry: in which case they may be used with safety.
Copper pans, if put away damp, will become coated with poisonous crust, or verdigris, as will also a boiling-copper, if left wet. When used for cooking, and not properly cleaned, copper vessels have occasioned death to persons partaking of soup which had been warmed in a pan infected with verdigris.
Untinned copper or brass vessels are at all times dangerous: it is absurd to suppose, that if the copper or brass pan be scoured bright and clean, there is little or no danger, for this makes but a trifling difference; such vessels for culinary purposes ought to be banished for ever from the kitchen.
A polished silver or brass tea-urn will keep the water hotter than one of a dull brown color, such as is most commonly used. The more of the surface of a kettle that is polished, the sooner will water boil in it, as the part coated with soot drives off rather than retains heat.
A polished metal tea-pot is preferable to one of earthenware; because the earthen pot retains the heat only one-eighth of the time that a silver or polished metal pot will; consequently, the latter will best draw the tea.
A German saucepan is best adapted for boiling milk in: this is a saucepan glazed with white earthenware, instead of being tinned in the usual manner; the glaze prevents the tendency to burn, which, it is well known, milk possesses.
A stewpan, made as the German saucepan, is preferable to a metal preserving-pan; simple washing keeps it sweet and clean, and neither color nor flavor can by any chance be communicated to the article boiled in it.