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03 May, 2011

Help Identify This Thing

This pan was in the Savers thrift store in Manchester CT last weekend.  It is a 4-inch-deep, 11-inch-diameter pan, made of medium-weight aluminum.  The wooden handle on the left is fitted into an aluminum collar riveted to the pan. The most interesting feature, though, is the crank handle in the center. It is attached to a central "tube" rising from the pan, and is made of cast aluminum with a wooden knob.  The handle turns two "legs" that descend into the pan, along the tube, across the bottom of the pan, and about an inch up the outer wall.  It's important to know that this assembly, which appears to be some sort of stirring mechanism, does not actually scrape the sides or bottom of the pan, but move slightly above them, so no actual "stirring" can be done.

It's not a popcorn popper - there is no lid, nor any way to put a lid on without said lid enclosing the handle - but I have no idea what a pot like this would be used for.  There were no maker's marks or logos on the pan, either, so I don't have a starting point for research.

I invite you to leave a comment if you think you know what this odd pot is, or even if you'd like to speculate.

PS: I didn't buy the pan. Savers had it marked at $19.99, which I considered far too much to pay for something I probably won't use anyway.

EDIT: The mystery is solved!  Thanks to reader steve06082, who suggested that the pan might be a nut or coffee bean roaster.  When I Googled "nut roaster," here's what came up:


Thanks, Steve!

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9 comments:

  1. JMS03 May, 2011 23:28

    It looks like a food mill, minus the strainer attachment.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dennis K.03 May, 2011 23:47

    Wow, this is a tough one. I thought I knew my kitchen gadgets. My vague wild guess is something related to making fruit preserves....

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jim Weller04 May, 2011 00:38

    Yeah, looks like a food mill to me too.

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  4. Dave04 May, 2011 06:03

    @JMS and Jim Weller - It does resemble a food mill, but there are no holes in the bottom of the pan to sieve the contents through - it's like a tube pan for baking angel-food cake, but with a crank handle.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Brook04 May, 2011 07:49

    I think it may be a strangely low-tech version of a self-stirring pot, as described under the second entry here:

    http://www.crummy.com/writing/TheFuture/And%20Stuff%20for%20Around%20the%20House.html

    I love that library archivists use a higher-tech version for making wheat paste. And I guess home cooks could use it for making risotto if they wanted to store yet another unitasker. But unless I'm missing something, the low-tech version doesn't seem to have any advantage over a spoon.

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  6. steve0608204 May, 2011 08:23

    Maybe a nut/coffee bean roaster.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Dave04 May, 2011 08:45

    steve06082 is awarded 2 internets for his nut roaster suggestion. Brooke receives a consolation prize of 1 internet, because it is after all a kind of self-stirring pot.

    Thanks to everyone who helped me figure this one out!

    ReplyDelete
  8. hap04 May, 2011 14:46

    Not sure I'd want to roast my nuts in that pan!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Harry13 March, 2012 14:25

    I saw one of these in my local Goodwill and was also very curious about it. My first thought was that it was some kind of quick release pan for angel food or bundt cakes but my googling found that it is a Back To Basics Nut Roaster. If I can find some actual recipes for it I might just go back and get it. Oddball kitchen items are hard to resist.

    ReplyDelete

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