Druware, also known as DRU Holland cookware [1] [2] and Royal Dru, [3] [4] was a line of porcelain-enamel-coated cast-iron cookware made by the De Koninklijke Diepenbrock & Reigers of Ulft (DRU) company in Achterhoek, Netherlands. [5]
Druware, also known as DRU Holland cookware [1] [2] and Royal Dru, [3] [4] was a line of porcelain-enamel-coated cast-iron cookware made by the De Koninklijke Diepenbrock & Reigers of Ulft (DRU) company in Achterhoek, Netherlands. [5]
The pots and pans were popular in the United States during the middle of the 20th century, after Robert Evans began importing the cookware from The Netherlands, with gross annual sales of $1.5 million in 1956, [6] and nearly $2 million in 1957. [3]
"American housewives have been snapping up the Evans-designed green, blue and yellow 'cook-and-serve' vessels faster than many stores can keep them in stock. Known as Royal Dru, the cookware is the adaptation of a 200-year-old Dutch process of fusing iron to enamel so that it won't crack or chip from heat or rough handling." [3]
In 1960, DRU incorporated a wholly-owned subsidiary in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to manage distribution. [4]
The most popular line of Druware came in pastel shades of Delft Blue, Tulip Yellow, and Key Largo Green, and was recognizable for the hand-painted tulip, windmill, and fleur-de-lis decorations on the sides and lids of each piece. [7] A flame orange color, as well as "Holiday White" (white enamel, with the signature tulip design in blue) [8] [9] and an all-white color "that resembles china" [10] were also produced.
Despite Druware's popularity with home cooks, venerable chef James Beard was less impressed. "I use the old lines of cast iron -- Griswold, Wagner -- not all this prettied stuff. I had a Druware pot simply split from the heat a day or two ago." [11]
After natural gas became popular in the Netherlands in the 1960s, [12] DRU ceased the production of cookware, and began producing fireplaces, wall heaters, and wood stoves. [5]
Druware was the design inspiration for Dutch Ovenware, a line of pottery produced by Cameron Clay Products, of Cameron, West Virginia. [13]
Delftware or Delft pottery, also known as Delft Blue or as delf, is a general term now used for Dutch tin-glazed earthenware, a form of faience. Most of it is blue and white pottery, and the city of Delft in the Netherlands was the major centre of production, but the term covers wares with other colours, and made elsewhere. It is also used for similar pottery, English delftware.
Cookware and bakeware is food preparation equipment, such as cooking pots, pans, baking sheets etc. used in kitchens. Cookware is used on a stove or range cooktop, while bakeware is used in an oven. Some utensils are considered both cookware and bakeware.
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Le Creuset is a French-Belgian maker of cookware. They are best known for producing enameled cast-iron cookware. The company first manufactured their products in the town of Fresnoy-le-Grand in France in 1925, which are similar in function to a Dutch oven but with T-shaped handles designed by the Italian industrial innovator Enzo Mari. The Le Creuset Dutch oven is on display in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. as a part of the recreation of the chef Julia Child's kitchen. It has been widely reported to be her favorite cooking pot, though specialist sources hold that it was the Dutch oven of Le Creuset's less-remembered competitor Descoware that was her real favorite. The company also makes many other types of cookware and bakeware, from fondue-sets to tagines.
Heavy-duty cookware made of cast iron is valued for its heat retention, durability, ability to maintain high temperatures for longer time duration, and non-stick cooking when properly seasoned. Seasoning is also used to protect bare cast iron from rust. Types of cast iron cookware include frying pans, dutch ovens, griddles, waffle irons, flattop grills, panini presses, crepe makers, deep fryers, tetsubin, woks, potjies, and karahi.
Descoware is a discontinued brand of porcelain- or enamel-coated cast iron cookware Among notable Descoware pots are dutch ovens. Although Descoware is now little-remembered, specialist sources hold that it was the favorite cooking ware of American cooking instructor and television personality Julia Child, more so than Le Creuset whose association with the chef has been widely reported. Child regularly used Descoware on her television show The French Chef. The Smithsonian Institution's installation about Child's kitchen featured a large orange Descoware pot on top of Child's own stove.
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A non-stick surface is engineered to reduce the ability of other materials to stick to it. Non-stick cookware is a common application, where the non-stick coating allows food to brown without sticking to the pan. Non-stick is often used to refer to surfaces coated with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), a well-known brand of which is Teflon. In the twenty-first century, other coatings have been marketed as non-stick, such as anodized aluminium, silica, enameled cast iron, and seasoned cookware.
A kitchen utensil is a small hand-held tool used for food preparation. Common kitchen tasks include cutting food items to size, heating food on an open fire or on a stove, baking, grinding, mixing, blending, and measuring; different utensils are made for each task. A general purpose utensil such as a chef's knife may be used for a variety of foods; other kitchen utensils are highly specialized and may be used only in connection with preparation of a particular type of food, such as an egg separator or an apple corer. Some specialized utensils are used when an operation is to be repeated many times, or when the cook has limited dexterity or mobility. The number of utensils in a household kitchen varies with time and the style of cooking.
Cousances was the brand of enameled cast iron cookware. originally manufactured by a foundry in the town of Cousances-les-Forges in northeastern France. The Cousances foundry began making cast iron pans in 1553. Four centuries later, in 1957, the brand was acquired by Le Creuset. Cookware under the Cousances brand continued to be manufactured by Le Creuset into the early 1980s.
Seasoning or curing is the process of coating the surface of cookware with a bioplastic formed from heated fat or oil in order to produce a heat, corrosion, and stick resistant hard coating. It is required for cast-iron cookware and carbon steel, which otherwise rust rapidly in use, but is also used for many other types of cookware, as it helps prevent food sticking.
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Row NYC Hotel is a hotel at 700 Eighth Avenue, between 44th and 45th Streets, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The hotel is 27 stories tall with 1,331 rooms. Designed by Schwartz & Gross, with Herbert J. Krapp as consulting architect, it was developed by brothers Henry and Irwin Chanin and opened on February 1, 1928, as the Hotel Lincoln. The hotel largely retains its original brick-and-terracotta facade. The interior spaces, which originally included a lobby and various restaurants on the first three stories, have been redesigned substantially over the years.
Industrial porcelain enamel is the use of porcelain enamel for industrial, rather than artistic, applications. Porcelain enamel, a thin layer of ceramic or glass applied to a substrate of metal, is used to protect surfaces from chemical attack and physical damage, modify the structural characteristics of the substrate, and improve the appearance of the product.
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