Hand Hammered Brass Saucepan, 1.3 kg

Name: Hand Hammered Brass Saucepan, 1.3 kg
Brand: PEETAL PARAMPARA
SKU: PP-BR-DIN-SAU-021
Price: 3199.0 INR
Availability: InStock

A hammered brass saucepan, tin lined inside, with one long riveted handle.

Rs. 3,199.00

Price includes GST.

Weight: 1,300g

Material: Brass, unlacquered outside
Finish: Hand hammered, matte
Lining: Tin lined inside (kalai), carried over the rim
Handle: One long curved handle, riveted once through the wall
In the box: 1 brass saucepan with handle

Check delivery to your PIN code

Estimated, not a guarantee. Dispatched from Guwahati, Monday to Saturday.

Each piece is shaped and finished by hand, so small differences in weight, size, finish and surface marking are normal and no two are identical. Colour on screen can differ from the metal in daylight. Handmade in India.

The tin stops at the rim and turns over the edge, so the lip reads silver while the outer wall stays gold. Under the grey the hammer marks are still there, raised through the coat in flat dimples that run in rows and step out of line where one course of blows overtook the next. The handle is a different metal, bright white against the brass, curved up away from the heat and held by a single round-headed rivet that shows on the inside wall.

Technique

Hand Hammered
Tin Lined

What is it?

A saucepan is the straight-sided single-handled pan a kitchen boils milk and tea in. Kalai is the tin skin wiped over the inside of a brass one, so what the food touches is tin rather than brass.

Also known as a tapeli, pateli, milk pan, tea pan or peetal saucepan.

What is in the box?

1 brass saucepan with handle

How do I look after it?

The silver lining inside is kalai — a thin coat of tin, applied by hand over heat by a tinsmith called a kalaiwala. Brass reacts with sour food; the kalai is the barrier between the two.
Kalai is not permanent. With regular cooking it wears through in roughly 12 to 15 months — sooner on a high flame, later on a vessel used only for storage or ghee. When brass starts showing through the silver, it is time to have it redone. The vessel itself will outlast you; the coating is a service item, like re-soling a shoe.
Getting it redone: any local kalaiwala can do it, usually for a small charge, usually the same day.
Cook on a low to medium flame. High heat is what strips kalai fastest.
Use wooden or silicone tools. Steel spatulas scratch tin.
Wash by hand with mild soap and a soft sponge, and dry immediately. Never scour the inside.
Clean the outside brass with lemon and salt or tamarind. Keep abrasives off the tinned inside.

How was it made?

Hand Hammered
Tin Lined

Handmade in India

Every piece finished by hand

Solid metal

No plating, nothing to chip

Weighed and listed

In grams, on almost every page

Tin lining stated

Where a vessel is lined, we say so

Questions about this piece

Is this brass solid or plated?

Solid. The grey inside is a tin wipe over brass, not a plating over base metal, and 1,300 g for a pan this size is the part of the argument you can check on a scale at home.

Will it look exactly like the photograph?

No two come out the same. The hammering is struck by hand and the tin is wiped on by hand, so the marks and the mottling of the grey inside shift from one pan to the next.

Is it tin lined?

Yes. The whole inside carries a kalai coat and it is carried over the rim, which is why the lip reads silver from the outside. Tin is soft and wears thin under scraping and long heat, so it is re-tinned every year or two by a kalaiwala.

Can I keep curd, lemon or pickle in it?

Cook them in it, do not store them in it. The tin holds up to a sour gravy on the flame, but curd or lemon left standing overnight works at the coat and then at the brass under it.

Can I put it in the dishwasher?

Hand wash only. Dishwasher heat and salts take tin off faster than anything else in a kitchen. Warm water, a soft sponge, no steel scrubber, and dry it before it is put away.

Is the handle brass too?

It photographs as a bright white metal against the gold of the pan, which reads as steel rather than brass. We are confirming it with the maker before this page states either way.