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Re: Taste: Microwave Heating vs Boiling



As others have pointed out, the tea kettle I use has a copper bottom both
inside and out. The stainless steel is only on the sides. This type of
kettle is probably ubiquitous because of the Revere company, and they still
market it.

Why is it constructed this way rather than copper on the outside-bottom like
Revere sauce pans? Could it be they want some copper in the tea water? I
doubt it, but I have not asked them. I assume it is less expensive. I
presume a copper-bottomed stainless-steel sauce pan has stainless steel on
the inside to make it stronger (less easily dented) and also easier to
clean. If the tea kettle is just used for boiling water, this stainless
coating is not necessary. By the way, the copper bottomed tea kettle has
quite thin copper. I am on my second one after the first one wore through.

According to http://www.revereware.com/products/teakettles/main.html
These are stainless steel teakettles. Copper is toxic, and I can't
imagine why the company, having mastered the secret of bonding copper
to stainless, would make a solid copper bottom. The danger of it
boiling dry on a gas stove would be too great. That would be the end
of a copper bottomed kettle, but would only be a bad thing to do with
a copper clad stainless kettle.

We had one of the Revere Ware tea kettles before we emigrated to
British Columbia (I think we may have it still). Up here almost
everyone uses electric tea kettles with immersion heaters. They are
much more efficient than stovetop kettles, though at 1500 W they
typically take eight minutes to bring a liter and a half of tap
water to a rolling boil. For years we used to load up our car with
Hudson's Bay Company tea kettles for our annual visits to relatives
in California. These gifts (they typically cost less than ten
dollars on sale back in the seventies) were much appreciated, but
several met bad ends when visitors put them on the stovetop!

Leigh