Yard Sale, Thrift Store, Junk Heap Shopping (Part 2)

[Margaret Pilgrim]

I fell in love/lust with this heavy glass at the swap meet today. The lid is threaded and screws securely to the base - like a precursor to travel mugs. The glass can sit in the lid as a coaster app. The vendor had no clue. I overpaid at $10 but she often just gives me things so it was one of those balance of nature things. Any thoughts?

Heidi, It looks like a pickle or jam "caster" jar. These usually were in sets of two or three and were held in silver or pewter "hangers" ..

Here's a page with a bunch, the style varied considerably, some open, many had lids.

Castor jars usually had metal (silver plate, etc) lids and were not threaded. Threaded, in fact, is the operative descriptive word for this jar. I have seen them at French flea markets but have never asked their original use.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Our gleanings so far this weekend: On my shopping list was baking soda, French working jars (the ones with the orange, red or green plastic lids and a double boiler large enough to hold dinner party quantities of mashed potatoes or polenta. Went to one estate sale where my husband unearthed 2 unopened boxes of arm and hammer with 2012 dates, a box of 12 working jars with 6 lids and a 2 qt Calphalon double boiler. Total price: $5.00. Raced to the car, yelling to husband, "Start the car, start the car!", channeling a local Ikea commercial in which the wife thinks they have mis-rung her purchases because her bill was so low.

[andiesenji]

I fell in love/lust with this heavy glass at the swap meet today. The lid is threaded and screws securely to the base - like a precursor to travel mugs. The glass can sit in the lid as a coaster app. The vendor had no clue. I overpaid at $10 but she often just gives me things so it was one of those balance of nature things. Any thoughts?

Heidi, It looks like a pickle or jam "caster" jar. These usually were in sets of two or three and were held in silver or pewter "hangers" ..

Here's a page with a bunch, the style varied considerably, some open, many had lids.

Castor jars usually had metal (silver plate, etc) lids and were not threaded. Threaded, in fact, is the operative descriptive word for this jar. I have seen them at French flea markets but have never asked their original use.

That's true that many did have metal lids, but many also had glass lids with ground-glass "seals" - similar to apothecary jars - I have a set of three in a silver carrier (high Victorian) inherited from my great grandmother with this type of lid and some were threaded. Without looking at these and checking the type of glass, I can't say for certain but threaded jars were available in Victorian times, including jars for cosmetics - one of my aunt collected those and donated her collection to some museum. I used to get in trouble when little by playing with them - thankfully I never broke anything.

I also have a glass caviar jar with threaded glass lid ca. 1920 - also inherited.

[heidih]

Andie and Margaret - thanks for the info. I agree that opening and closing it too often is probably not a good idea. It is completely intact now. I will print out the info for the vendor in case she finds another. As for using it - I suppose as a display jar - will see what unfolds.

[patrickamory]

Tracy, I love the pot strainer. That looks like a seriously useful tool.

[thock]

Tracy, I love the pot strainer. That looks like a seriously useful tool.

Oh, it IS! I love it. It's even better than the stainless one I got several years ago, new. I think the design of the handle makes for a more secure hold against the pot. I have used it at least once a day since I got it.

Andie, a while back, I got a brown bottle with a ground glass stopper. I was amazed that it sealed so well. I was very impressed. I don't have anything in it, now, but I'm wondering what it may have been used for, originally. I think it's an apothecary bottle. It's about 3-4 fl oz volume, I think (I don't have it in front of me). I'm thinking of just using it as a display piece, once the house is put back together.

[andiesenji]

Tracy, I love the pot strainer. That looks like a seriously useful tool.

Oh, it IS! I love it. It's even better than the stainless one I got several years ago, new. I think the design of the handle makes for a more secure hold against the pot. I have used it at least once a day since I got it.

Andie, a while back, I got a brown bottle with a ground glass stopper. I was amazed that it sealed so well. I was very impressed. I don't have anything in it, now, but I'm wondering what it may have been used for, originally. I think it's an apothecary bottle. It's about 3-4 fl oz volume, I think (I don't have it in front of me). I'm thinking of just using it as a display piece, once the house is put back together.

Bottles with ground glass stoppers have been used for chemicals, especially ones that would have held liquids that would have affected cork, rubber and other materials used for stopping bottles in the old days. Laboratories were still using ground glass stoppers in everything from tiny vials to big carboys as recently as fifteen years ago - the last time I was in a working lab. They may still be for all I know. Perfumers use them so that the essential oils and scents will not be affected by other materials. They seal so well that perfumes have kept for years without evaporating. They also look elegant.

Here are some.

Edited October 28, 2012 by andiesenji (log)

[Darienne]

Sunday at Wabi Sabi. 50% off for over 55-year olds. And boy, are we over 55.

Bought a Breadman breadmaker for $6, just to use here for fun and then return when we leave. But back it goes tomorrow. Never had a loaf of bread stick in the container and have a thick, almost burnt crust. Used a never-fail recipe. Maybe that’s why it was turned in.

Picked up a few cookbooks, including three on Chinese Cooking. One by Ken Hom, Also Mrs. Chiang’s Szechwan Cookbook. A small El Paso Chile cookbook on tortillas, a Bon Appetit Special Occasion Desserts, and one called Garden Harvest Cookbook which has pages and pages on growing vegetables and herbs.

[thock]

Tracy, I love the pot strainer. That looks like a seriously useful tool.

Oh, it IS! I love it. It's even better than the stainless one I got several years ago, new. I think the design of the handle makes for a more secure hold against the pot. I have used it at least once a day since I got it.

Andie, a while back, I got a brown bottle with a ground glass stopper. I was amazed that it sealed so well. I was very impressed. I don't have anything in it, now, but I'm wondering what it may have been used for, originally. I think it's an apothecary bottle. It's about 3-4 fl oz volume, I think (I don't have it in front of me). I'm thinking of just using it as a display piece, once the house is put back together.

Bottles with ground glass stoppers have been used for chemicals, especially ones that would have held liquids that would have affected cork, rubber and other materials used for stopping bottles in the old days. Laboratories were still using ground glass stoppers in everything from tiny vials to big carboys as recently as fifteen years ago - the last time I was in a working lab. They may still be for all I know. Perfumers use them so that the essential oils and scents will not be affected by other materials. They seal so well that perfumes have kept for years without evaporating. They also look elegant.

Here are some.

Way cool. Mine's brown and narrow-mouthed, but otherwise looks exactly the same as those. I have tea tree oil that makes rubber dropper bulbs deteriorate. I may use it for those,and have the dropper elsewhere,and rinse it out with rubbing alcohol between uses. Or maybe get the dropper bottle that I see on that website. I'll have to keep my eyes out for more of these. I'm a geek and a mechanical engineer, so I'm very curious about how they manufacture(d) the stoppers. I'll have to look that up,.

Edited October 29, 2012 by thock (log)

[Darienne]

And it's Sunday again which means the old guys go to Wabi Sabi. Got a Waring Ice crusher for $1.50 for next summer's Dog Weekend's Margaritas. One use but not much of a footprint. The silliest chip and dip plate I've ever seen. Won't embarrass myself by posting a photo, also for the Dog Weekend.. Four more Bon Appetit hardbacks for my friend back home who is collecting them. At 50 cents a piece, I didn't bother checking whether she had these ones or not. Small muffin pan to give me 18 at a time.

Bought another breadmaker, Regal Ware, and am about to test it. It goes back when we leave. But in the meantime I make David Goldfarb's recipe for Challah to use in a Capirotada. Yeah, I know...

[haresfur]

Way cool. Mine's brown and narrow-mouthed, but otherwise looks exactly the same as those. I have tea tree oil that makes rubber dropper bulbs deteriorate. I may use it for those,and have the dropper elsewhere,and rinse it out with rubbing alcohol between uses. Or maybe get the dropper bottle that I see on that website. I'll have to keep my eyes out for more of these. I'm a geek and a mechanical engineer, so I'm very curious about how they manufacture(d) the stoppers. I'll have to look that up,.

Ground glass stoppers are very cool but can freeze up and become impossible or nearly impossible to remove, particularly if they haven't been opened in a while or if something was put in hot and then allowed to cool.

Bendigo Pottery used to make clay 5 gallon bottles with threaded clay tops to hold chemicals like sulfuric acid. I'm amazed they could get the tops to fit and seal after firing.

[Darienne]

Sunday once more at Wabi Sabi and the oldsters get 50% off. http://www.amazon.co..._product_top A dome cake/Zuccotto cake mold. $1.50. I don't know why. Picked it up because I didn't know what it was. Very well constructed. I'll have to try it out. A local friend has a birthday on Wednesday.

BTW, the Capirotada, made from my (last week's Wabi Sabi prize) bread machine-produced Challah, is delicious.

I'll never figure out how such a tiny and impecunious town has so much good second-hand items for sale. Lots of wealthy tourists, no doubt, but tourists don't leave Zuccotto molds behind when they leave.

Edited November 12, 2012 by Darienne (log)

[thock]

Darienne,

It's funny how seeing something once will prime you to see it more readily in the future. I had to laugh, yesterday, when I visited a thrift store that I've never before visited, and saw not one, but TWO of those cake molds. They wanted something close to $8 for each of them. I don't need one, but I immediately thought of you.

The other day, I was at Goodwill, and I saw what appeared to be a round copper cake pan, maybe 8-9 inches in diameter, for about $3.00. I bought it, but I'm not really sure what it is or what it's for. It's not lined with tin, and has a half-rolled edge and a very rounded side-to-bottom corner. I'll take a picture, later, and post it.

Tracy

[Darienne]

Hi Tracy,

Sunday at Wabi Sabi is a longstanding tradition with us. The year we actually lived for 7 months in Moab, we had to furnish an empty house. It was an incredible experience...and then we had our first ever 'yard' sale and sold it all for what we paid for it and turned the rest back in.

I do make a 'Zucotto' type cake for birthdays, a chocolate cake filled with two chocolate mousses, then covered with another chocolate ganache and garnished with white chocolate curls. Fie kinds of chocolate with whipped cream and booze...what's not to like. I make the cake on a cookie sheet and then cut it up and line a bowl. Will this new pan make it easier? Or will it hit the Value Village back home?

Have fun with your copper pan.

[andiesenji]

Darienne,

It's funny how seeing something once will prime you to see it more readily in the future. I had to laugh, yesterday, when I visited a thrift store that I've never before visited, and saw not one, but TWO of those cake molds. They wanted something close to $8 for each of them. I don't need one, but I immediately thought of you.

The other day, I was at Goodwill, and I saw what appeared to be a round copper cake pan, maybe 8-9 inches in diameter, for about $3.00. I bought it, but I'm not really sure what it is or what it's for. It's not lined with tin, and has a half-rolled edge and a very rounded side-to-bottom corner. I'll take a picture, later, and post it.

Tracy

Tracy, I have one of those unlined copper pans (Mauviel) which was called a "sponge" cake pan/jelly mold (for gelatin molds) when I bought it probably two decades ago - now they are called "contour cake pans". I've used it for a top layer in cakes that I wanted to cover with fondant because the round edge looks nice - at least in my opinion.

Wilton makes them, also Fat Daddio, others. Lloyd pans

I bought the pan in a gourmet shop here in Lancaster that closed in '98. They carried a lot of French cookware, specialty pans, copper molds, etc., not available anywhere else in my area.

[thock]

Thanks, Andie. Here's a picture of mine.

[Darienne]

Oooh. Lovely copper pan.

[andiesenji]

Yes, that is almost identical to mine - I think mine has a lip that just slightly narrower - it's somewhere in a cupboard so I can't look right now. That one looks in excellent condition.

[Creola]

We took a day trip to Ft. Walton Beach over the holiday to get my son's Christmas present at an antique store, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. I didn't take a picture of it but it was an antique brass ship wheel for his boat. I found a Bravetti food processor/blender/juicer/miniprep brand new in the box at a goodwill for $26,it is not a well made processor but i want it for a second home so its fine for the price. Hubby is a Bbq'er so he has to have everything "pig", hence the copper trivet$3. We picked up a spare serving fork.95(another spare)and I loved the Dansk style knife$1.95, two spare wine glasses for the second home.50,and a ss serving tray(commercial type)$3. I also found some small fruit molds $1. And in New Orleans I picked up cookbooks $2 ea. All in all a good weekend.

[Darienne]

Found this neat recipe for ginger and chocolate (http://choclogblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/ginger-chocolates.html) and thought how good they would taste. Alas, I am far from home with no little molds to use. Then in the local market I saw this large pan of small molds, Wilton, $11.99 on sale doe $9.99. Should I? Don't be greedy, you have those pans at home. You can't always have everything you want. Put the pan of tiny molds into my shopping basket. Took it out. Two days in a row. Grow up, Darienne.

BUT THEN...we went to Wabi Sabi, our favorite second hand store in Moab to find a vacuum cleaner nozzle and what did I find in the kitchen section? The VERY pan for $3. It was a sign to buy the pan and make the candies.

We didn't find the nozzle.

Edited December 1, 2012 by Darienne (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Posted this over on the unusual and unknown kitchen gadgets thread to see who might hazard a guess about it.

[rotuts]

wow. what ever it is its impressive! did you buy it or are awaiting reviews before hand?

whats the top for? heat?

pls let us know what it is eventually!

[Kerry Beal]

Bought it - now need to find home for it. Indeed the top heats.

[rotuts]

So ...

that shaft with the screw threads lowers or raises those to little bottom less 'boats?'

you did see it in action ...

I cant yet visualize why you would want to heat those two "PT-boats" that had no bottom.

but Ive put it in the back of the 'think about it area' , which sometime comepeets with a Young, but Amusing

Meursault

as the Sheriff said in "True Grit" he's been known to pull a cork!

Edited December 15, 2012 by rotuts (log)

[andiesenji]

The ones I have seen in action have racks to hold french fry containers or containers for other fried foods, the semi-cone shaped but the holders are not as close to the warming element.

A lot are used without any rack at all to keep foods warm in trays or shallow pans.

I used to have one similar to this Hatco when I was catering - mine was made by Broil-King when they were still making commercial appliances. That was back in the '80s