Tips, Tips and More Tips from November 2009

You should not regild, resilver, or repaint political buttons or badges. You’ll lower their value.

Old cast-iron pans that have a serious buildup of “black” made by burnt food and carbon often need more than a washing. Put the pan in a self-cleaning oven for two hours. It should remove the buildup. Of course, black doesn’t harm the cooking properties of the pan, so you don’t need to clean it if you’re going to use it.