Whisk

Confectionery whisk (e.g. for beating egg whites) made of tinned wire, from the first half of the 19th century, part of the collection of the Potocki family. Large wire whisk, mace-shaped, consisting of a bundle of semi-circularly bent wires, half embraced by a steel ring and passing into a handle of tightly wound wire. The handle ends in a hook for hanging. In rich houses, manors and palaces kitchens were richly equipped not only with various kinds of furnaces, ovens (oven for bread, cakes, meat, spits) but also accessories such as pots, pans, saucepans. Kitchen utensils included a wide variety of vessels such as fish trays, saucepans, cauldrons, kettles and moulds for junkets, puddings, cakes (moulds for babas) and jellies, meat cleavers for separating meat, decorated with animal figures or their heads; the most common material used was copper, which is a very good conductor of heat. The handles of such vessels were made of steel (iron), which heated up much more slowly than copper. Due to the formation (as a result of the reaction of copper with carbon dioxide) of verdigris on the surface of such vessels, they were whitened (tin plated) for safety reasons. Still at the beginning of the 20th century, the jams fried in copper saucepans, shaped like a flat pan with a long handle, were widely considered as the most tasteful. Copper vessels were hand made and decorated using the technique of repoussage, i.e. cold hammering. Despite technological developments and the development of new materials, copper cookware is still in use due to its advantages.