Copper Cleaning

Getting a Jump on Spring Cleaning

My brother has spent his life traveling

the world and collecting interesting things

along the way.  One of those collections is

his copper.  Since he is a great cook, he uses

the copper all the time and that can lead to

stains and tarnish.

As he cooked, he noticed if something

with a tomato base would drip down the

side, it would make the copper sparkling

clean.  He developed this recipe for a

non-toxic copper cleaner.

1/2 cup ketchup

1/4 to 1/3 cup table salt

3 to 4 Tabl. vinegar or lemon juice

Mix together with a fork and paint

surface of copper with a paint brush

or piece of steel wool.  Let sit for 5

minutes.  Rinse with water.  Scour

surface lightly with 0 grade steel wool.

So, I put it to the test.  Yikes, I'm

embarrassed by the awful condition

of my copper.

After 5 minutes, it looked great.

I found it took the tarnish off very

easily.  For areas with grease spots

I used a Brillo pad to remove the spots.

Be careful though, you may spend

the rest of the day cleaning every

piece of copper in your home.

I hope he doesn't come up with a

silver polish!