Cleaning House: Polishing the Copper

Nothing brings charm to a kitchen quite as much as copper pans and bowls. They have the unfortunate tendency to become dicolored through use and oxidation. Good cooks everywhere swear by copper mixing bowls for whipping eggs whites into merengue.

So here's just the thing for getting your copper cleaned:

Lemon Juice
Sea salt (baking soda also works nicely)

Make a slurry from the lemon juice and salt. Using a terry cloth, rub it all over the bowl or pot and you'll be amazed at how shiny it comes up! Apparently, you should do this on the inside of your copper mixing bowl before making the merengue - every time - the acid kills any residual grease... which will kill your beautiful merengue!

If you have a lot of lemon juice and salt as well as a crowd of bored children on a rainy day - haul out the penny jar and start polishing! Make a game of it - see who finds the oldest pennies! They should be able to read the dates easily after they're cleaned. It's a good time to talk about mint marks, too! See whose penny was minted the nearest or furthest away!