LUCY BURDETTE: Hallie beat me to the punch discussing “stickie” stuff in our homes a few weeks back, but I felt sure there would be more to explore—in the kitchen, of course.
When I was first married, I brought a set of Paul Revere pots and pans to the family. These were the ones with copper bottoms that had to be polished. They were beautiful, and they’d belonged to my mother, so they might have been 40 years old with tons of sentimental value. After a while, we noticed that one of them had a pin-hole leak in the bottom. Honestly, it wasn’t usable, but I found it impossible to throw out.
“Do you think it’s going to heal if you baby it long enough?” John asked one day. So I threw it away.
Then, for the last who knows how many years, I’ve reached for this sifter when I needed to sift flour, sugar, and other pantry staples. I stopped using it about a year ago because it always delivered a fine sanding of rust to the ingredients. But it had been given to me by a friend who was moving to a new life forty years ago and I figured it had probably belonged to her mother. Again, sentimental value.
Finally I decided it was okay to buy a new one. I texted my friend a photo to break the news and ask if she wanted it back. “Oh,” she said, “that belonged to my ex mother in law.” So I pitched it.
RHYS BOWEN: we have enough antique stuff in the kitchen to film Downton Abbey, Lucy. John’s mother’s meat mincer, demi-Luna, several jello molds one in the shape of a rabbit, copper molds for aspic ( who does aspic any more?)
The first two are used all the time. We also had a brilliant rotary grater from his mother that would not only grate cheese but nuts and spices. Alas it finally broke!
HALLIE EPHRON: I think I have more antiques than non-antiques in my kitchen. An ancient rotary grater that’s just slightly (ahem) rusted. It does a great job on chunks of hard parmesan. And my mother-in-law’s candy thermometer which I can’t imagine that she ever actually used. My mother’s wooden salad bowl and hand chopper. And a green porcelain Hamilton Beach milkshake machine (and 2 stainless steel cups) – one just like it is going for $600 on the Internet, which is probably what it would cost to ship it.
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: So many old things, hand-me-downs and family antiques, including, improbably, the last nine plates (out of twenty) of Syracuse China my Grandma Fleming gave me when I moved to Washington, DC for grad school.
Two I use almost daily: the skillet is one of several given to me by my maternal grandmother, Mary McEachron Greuling. There's no makers mark on it, but my Grandpa Greuling was a skilled foundryman, so it might have been of his making. The knife was HER grandmother's, and if you look closely, you can see where the German steel has worn away in a curved indent from generations of women using and sharpening it. It's the best knife in the world, and I'll pass it on to whichever daughter or daughter-in-law is most likely to use it.
I hate to sound like an old geezer, but it just seems old kitchenware was made to last in a way modern pieces aren't.
How about you, Reds? Do you have antiques in your kitchen? And aren't you dying for a tour of Rhys's and Hallie's?
