How to Clean Copper Pots and Pans

'My life at home gives me absolute joy. There are some days when, as soon as you've finished cooking breakfast and cleaning up the kitchen, it's time to start lunch, and by the time you've done that, you're doing dinner and thinking, "There has to be a menu we can order from"' - Julia Roberts

This isn't my usual type of post. Don't get me wrong; I love cooking. I love finding a recipe off the cuff on the internet, buying all the goodies for it and cooking up a knock out dinner. I also love scraping together whatever's left in the fridge and making it into something amazing.

However - I hate cleaning. It takes too long, makes me all sweaty and tends to become and endless cycle (i.e. when I've cleaned the sink and realise that I've got a stack of plates by the cooker that haven't been washed up). 

Keeping my beloved set of copper pans clean is the worst. They seem to stain as soon as I use them, which makes maintaining their glorious coppery-ness a nightmare. After an evening spent scrubbing away with a sponge and more fairy liquid than you can shake a stick at, I decided to experiment with other household ingredients. Favouring a more natural approach (as chemicals didn't seem to make a dent), this was the method that worked the best for me:

1. Clean the copper surface of any food residue using your normal washing up liquid and hot water.

2. Slice a lemon into quarters. Take one quarter and rub the juicy side onto the copper surface in small circles. You'll see that the surface slowly begins to lighten. 

3. For any stubborn areas that won't lighten completely, shake a tiny amount of granulated table salt onto the lemon, then repeat your circles. This will act as a gentle abrasive.

4. Once the entire surface has lightened, thoroughly wash the surface with warm water and some washing up liquid so that all the lemon juice has been washed off. Dry with a tea towel.

Note: you may find that the surface will need a couple of cleans using lemons if it's really quite dull. My advice is to clean the surface using this method after every couple of uses. This will help maintain shiny copper!