sprinklefingers

it’s no secret that many recipes are very specific about avoiding ‘reactive’ prep bowls & cookware…but why?

maybe you already know the answer - look at you go, smartypants!

clearly i’m not a smartypants, because the whole ‘nonreactive’ thing stumped me for a long time before i bothered to do a bit of research and sort the whole thing out. and i’m here now to report my findings. lucky you!

most cookware is made of metal. and a few of the most popular metals for crafting cookware are indeed reactive. meaning, they are metals which conduct & hold heat very well, but also can react to acid in your recipes. the top three ‘reactive’ metals are:

• copper
• aluminum
• cast iron

when working with a recipe containing highly acidic foods (tomatoes, jams, etc.) it’s best to avoid cookware made from the above metals because the acid in the food reacts to the metal in the pan - and you can most definitely taste it in your end product. that tinny, metallic-y taste? that’s your pan reacting to the acid in your recipe. icky.

of course there are lots of cookware manufacturers who have created cookware that has a reactive metal at its core (because of its superior ability to conduct & hold heat) yet ‘clad’ the cookware in a non-reactive metal (like stainless steel.) the best known example of this ‘technology’ - enameled cast iron cookware - my cookware of choice in nearly every situation. another example? copper-core cookware.

now, there are a few situations where a ‘reaction’ with reactive cookware is welcome. take, for example, copper bowls & egg whites. when whipping egg whites in a copper bowl, some copper ions leach out of the bowl and partner up with a protein in the egg whites called conalbumin. this teaming of copper & conalbumin is extremely stable - meaning your egg whites are less likely to unfold once you’ve done the work of whipping them into a frenzy. lovely.

another situation where reactive cookware is welcome? non-enameled cast iron. when cast iron is used in meal preparation, a bit of the iron is leached into your foods - which means it goes into your body - which is like a magic iron supplement. you didn’t even have to take pill! truly magical.

so, smartypants, that’s my breakdown of nonreactive cookware. i know, i know - so interesting you can hardly contain yourself.