Cleaning Copper

It's time to get my copper preserving pan out and to clean the inside in preparation for the fruit pastes, jellies and marmelades I have in mind to make this season. The under or outside of the pan is a bit dark and discolored from sitting over the coals, which cannot be helped, so I'm mainly concerned with the inside. Keeping the inside immaculate and shiny will prevent any copper contamination from ruining my confitures.
To clean copper, make a paste of flour, salt and vinegar; rub all over the surface to be cleaned and leave to set for 15 minutes to half an hour. Rinse well with fresh water and dry thoroughly if not to be used immediately.

Echaudés and the Maillard Reaction

In my post on Echaudés - boiled pastry, I found that the recipe's instruction specifically say to use an unlined copper caldron or jam [confiture] pan to boil the pastries in. One of the interesting results of using a copper pan and heat would insure a reaction with the sugar in the dough to produce the Maillard reation, which will lead to browning once the dough is subjected to dry heat in an oven.

So when you next eat a pretzel or bagel or French echaudés, savor the flavor and the color of the outside of the pastry and be thankful for chemistry--otherwise, that bagel or pretzel or echaudés would remain as colorless as it was when removed from the boiling water of the previous step of preparation.