Gotten any fun stuff lately?

[curls]

1 hour ago, KennethT said:

How does the Corningware kettle work?  My mother used a Corningware baking dish (similar, if not the same as, the one you just got) and it was oven-safe, obviously.  But a kettle requires direct heat - like over a gas flame, or electric burner which are much hotter than oven temp air.  Or is the kettle more of a tea pot that is meant to have boiling water poured into it?

The USA made corningware can be used over direct heat. I have a skillet and a pot that I use on my gas stove.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyroceram

[Kerry Beal]

8 hours ago, KennethT said:

Thanks, but can it stir small quantities while frying in a small amount of oil?  Not a quart of soup, but stirring (and wiping the bottom so it doesn't burn) say a half cup of spice paste?

Not something I've used it for - but I suspect it would do it well. 

[TdeV]

34 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

Not something I've used it for - but I suspect it would do it well. 

 

Would love to hear a report on this!

[KennethT]

1 hour ago, Kerry Beal said:

Not something I've used it for - but I suspect it would do it well. 

@TdeV Me too!!  One way to see if it would work would be to puree one onion and see if it can fry it at medium heat with maybe 1-2T of oil until the oil separates back out.  I'd love to see how much human intervention it would need to do it evenly.

[ElsieD]

2 hours ago, KennethT said:

@TdeV Me too!!  One way to see if it would work would be to puree one onion and see if it can fry it at medium heat with maybe 1-2T of oil until the oil separates back out.  I'd love to see how much human intervention it would need to do it evenly.

Next time I use it and need to fry onions, I'll post how it works unless someone beats me to it.

[chromedome]

On 3/20/2025 at 1:56 PM, KennethT said:

I had high hopes for this device:

https://www.amazon.com/STIRMAX-Multi-Cooker-Automatic-programmable-Simmering/dp/B0DC1T1F36/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=2ALKEQSAU0MDC&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.KmC0Kqgeq7oXNwgT_2sw-5hsWS7uOtFbUMINaFZa8MbHNckPFfQwRRcGqfm-B8wDUueN3WoXczgWEwjDenv-KiijkLjZaBhU7nZ6rC5uMobLeusKxQ1cCOSV_7jUAs06TV-mY6hQrfhSAbWiY8I0ZY4eykebKJ-ji4uyHhzM51xWhhhxEwD3Fy01YhW8VszGuUCoYgd9hUmWvWFRqETUcUgVaObuL6G51hRqmCKt6KM.1pEqI7ArR6lICHA15thBtJeV__Md33IBL4hngdXEXZ0&dib_tag=se&keywords=power%2Bxl%2Bstir%2Bmax%2Bmulti%2Bcooker&qid=1742489461&sprefix=power%2Bxl%2Caps%2C100&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&th=1

 

It's designed to automatically stir foods that are cooking in it - I thought it would be a great thing to use to automate frying Malay/Indo/Nyonya curry pastes (typically fried in oil prior to adding liquids) or making long cooked (and constantly stirred) stuff like rendang.  I received it the other day and finally got to try it out last night.  I tested it with frying some pureed onion.  Unfortunately, the stirring doesn't work nearly as well as I'd hoped it would - there's a decent sized gap between the stirring blade and the pan's bottom and there's 4 spots on the corners of the square pan where the food accumulates and A) doesn't actually cook there as there's only little heat and B) doesn't get out of there unless manually moved (which kinda defeats the purpose of an automated stirring mechanism, no?)

 

Disappointed... and it's being returned this weekend...

Yeah, that's a head-scratcher. I wonder whatever possessed them to make the cooking vessel square (-ish) rather than round? It's a pretty fundamental design flaw; you'd think a beta-tester might have mentioned this?

[YvetteMT]

17 hours ago, Smithy said:

 

 

I'd noticed that some sensible person had taken the vintage set of 3 Cornflower Corningware baking dishes for $10, but they'd left behind the Corningware baking dish that I thought I could use. I spotted the couple outside, packing to go. They were finished with the yard sale, but happy to sell me that baking dish. And load me up with other things I admired. They were happy to get rid of them! 

 

I lose my head everytime I spot the Corningware cornflower in the wild! I have stacks of the stuff- my problem is I don't use it. It's purely nostalgia for me- my grandmother used them a great deal. If I was smart I'd try to trade them for pink Pyrex that I love. 

[Shel_B]

This is for the Corningware aficionados here. I'm a fan also, and have found this information to be useful:

 

https://www.corningware411.com/p/welcome-to-consolidated-patterns-page.html

[JeanneCake]

We had that very same Corningware kettle/teapot at home; I was allowed to use it to boil water to make instant oatmeal for breakfast before school.  We had an electric range and it's probably still at home collecting dust in the garage.  My mom won a microwave oven  (when they were the huge hulking devices that were as big as a laser printer is now!) and then we just started heating water in a pyrex glass measure ...