Baumalu Copper Cookware have a bad reputation among copper cookware collector. I believe this is due to the low price and the cost cutting measures that the company implements. However, to dismiss the company because of this is a mistake that most make. You simply cannot beat the value that Baumalu Copper Cookware provide. On average you can find them cheaply for around 20-100 dollars. They have a wide array of cookware such as frying pans, pots, Jam Pans and even utensils such as ladles.

But what exactly makes them cheaper? Baumalu employs a technique that most manufacturer uses. They cut corners wherever they think consumer wont notice. The handle is a prime example of this. The older Baumalu handles are like the other french copper manufacturer. However, on some of the newer model, they have a bent rebar for a handle. Another cost cutting measure is the thickness of the tin. It is considerably thinner than other manufacturer.

Since each individual Baumalu Copper cookware has their own nuances and differences, I will go through each one and discuss whether their cost cutting measure is important. I will also compare the cookware to other major manufacturer to discuss which is better overall and how it affects cooking.

Baumalu Copper Fry Pan Quick Summary

Categories	Baumalu Copper Frying Pan
Performance	Great
Colors	Polished Copper
Comparability	Gas and Electric Stove
Brand Awareness	America and Europe
Country of Manufacturer	France
Thoughts	French Copper Cookware at a great price. The main issue is the thickness of the pan. You cannot sear food like steak due weight of it. However, if use the pan as a braising pan, it will be one of the best performer in your kitchen. It is great for vegetables and sauteing food.
Reviewed Cookware	Baumalu Copper Frying Pan

Baumalu Copper Frying Pan

The frying pan is the hero of any cookware manufacturer. It is the most used piece of cookware in the kitchen. Baumalu Frying Pan hovers around 30-50 dollar, but how does it compare to major manufacturer. Companies like mauviel will charge 200-300 for a similar skillet.

Baumalu Copper Frying Pan Thickness

Baumalu Copper Frying Pan is actually one of my most used skillet in the kitchen. But I dont use it like most other people would. The first thing that you should be aware of is that the thickness of Baumalu Cookware is usually very thin. Using my micrometer, I found that the sidewall thickness of their Frying Pan is only 1.66 mm. Most would consider this as a table service cookware. It is not designed for certain task like searing a large amount of food.
Thin copper cookware heats up very fast but it cant sear large pieces of meat like steak. Once a heavy object hits the pan, all the heat will be drawn away and food will steam. For more detailed information on this subject, read my Article on how copper cookware thickness affects cooking.

Using thin copper cookware to your advantage

How would you use this to your advantage? Since the frying pan can heat up rapidly, water should also heat up faster than other pans. To take advantage of this, I would boil food in water and once its cooked part way, I will sear food in that same pan. Vegetables can be cooked very quickly this way. Since more food isn’t added, a heavy pan isn’t necessary.
What if you don’t like vegetables, well sausages can be cook with this method as well. In fact, America Test Kitchen actually mentioned that this is a preferred way of cooking sausages. By using this technique, the sausage does not loose the moisture and remains juicy. Once the moisture is driven out, you can sear the sausage in that same pan. Usually there will be a ring of fond afterward, you can use that to make a sauce.

Structural Rigidity

Rigidity is another issue that is inherent with a pan of this thickness. When cooking for a longer period of time, the pan will tend to warp. It won’t warp to a point where its unusable but it will be slightly oblong. It will revert back to its initial shape after cooling.
Some other manufacturer like Ruffoni gets around this by hammering the cookware. A hammered copper cookware will be work hardened and will hold its shape better. To get a better understanding of this, I recommend reading the article on Annealing at Wikipedia.

Baumalu Copper Frying Pan Shape

The shape itself is not really anything exciting. It is your typical French styled frying pan with no pouring lip. What is surprising is the gentle slope around the corner. This lets you scrap the side with a spatula easily.

Handle

The handle is very basic like most of Baumalu Copper Cookware. In fact the base of the handle looks exactly like the one that Matfer Bourgeat uses, only thinner….

Baumalu Tin Coating

The tin coating is hand wiped, but with a very thin layer. For whatever reason, it never seemed to bubble on me. Not only that, it is lasting a surprising amount of time. The tin layer that you will get from manufacturer like Mauviel is a lot more substantial. Those thicker tin copper also tend to bubble more easily. I am not too sure of the reason why.

What makes Bamalu Copper Cookware so cheap?

To summarize, there are many factor as to why its cheaper than brands like Mauviel. Here are some bullet points to explain the price difference.
-Basic Looking Handle
-Thinner Tin Linning
-Thin Gauge copper
-Lack of Marketing
If you can look past all of that and use the pan for what it is. You will have a bargain of a frying pan. It performs phenomenally as a saute and braise pan. However, if you are looking to sear food, I recommend that you get a thicker gauge frying pan like those offered by Mauviel. For general purpose cooking, it will perform just fine. These pans literally cost 1/10th of the price of other manufacturer. you simply cannot beat the value.

Baumalu Copper Sauce Pot Quick Summary

Categories	Baumalu Copper Sauce Pot
Performance	Great
Colors	Polished Copper
Comparability	Gas and Electric Stove
Brand Awareness	America and Europe
Country of Manufacturer	France
Thoughts	On average, their sauce pot thickness is over 2 mm. The design and construction is like any other French Copper Sauce pot. It is truly one of the best value on the market. This should let you cook and heat liquid without any issue.
Reviewed Cookware	Baumalu Sauce pan

Baumalu Copper Pot Review

Baumalu Copper Pot are nearly identical to other copper manufacturer. The handles are similar, the shape is similar and so is the thickness. They usually do not come in very large sizes of 8 inches and above.

Baumalu Copper Cookware Thickness

In general, the thickness on Baumalu Copper Pot is very good for its size. On average, the larger diameter pot is around 2.2 mm and the smaller sized one are typically around 1.8mm. However you should be careful, even among the similar sized saucepan, the thickness are not the same. Different version pots of the same diameter have different thickness.
In terms of performance, a 3 mm thick copper pot is not necessary. A saucepan main purpose is to make sauces and soup. Having a thinner one might actually be beneficial. The heat responsiveness of a pan actually goes down the thicker the pan. With a thinner pan, you can control the heat better when making delicate sauces. In this instance, I feel that the thickness of their pot is perfect.

Shape and Pouring Lip

The design is a very traditional French Style pot. It is a straight sided pot with no pouring lip. It was probably done this way to save cost all you need to do is stamp it with a hydraulic press. Given the size limitation of these pots, they are great for mostly making one or two portion size sauces.

Baumalu Tin lining

As stated before, their tin lining is thin. Luckily these are meant mostly to boil liquid. As long as you do not constantly scrap the inside with a metal utensil, the tin lining should last a good while. When washing, I recommend that you use the soft side of the sponge. Using the nylon scour pad too often will result in the tin wearing out. I was not aware of how thin it was and the tin lining on my sauté pan wore down.

Baumalu Copper Cookware Handle

The handle is really well built, it is on par with most other French manufacturer. It has more of a 45 degree angle straight upward. It is attached to the saucepan via three rivets instead of two. The base looks to be the appropriate size for the pot and the handle looks very well finished. There are no nicks or burr on the edge.

Baumalu Copper Pot is the best small to Medium Copper Saucepan

The value that Baumalu Saucepan provides is unbeatable. You can find Baumalu copper pots for around 20-50 dollar while other manufacturer will sell them for around 200 dollars. For its purpose, you should really consider buying these pans. Most gas range that people have will heat these pans adequately.
For larger version saucepan, I recommend sticking with a thicker gauge copper like a 3 mm version. The extra thick copper will smooth out any heating issues that your stove might have.

Baumalu Copper Utensils

Baumalu Utensils are typically unlined copper cookware that is meant primarily for making jams. They come in all version of the traditional copper utensils, the one that I am reviewing today is the copper ladle.

Is tin Lining always necessary?

Whether a tin lining is really necessary is depending on what your purpose is for. Unlined Copper has been used as a water vessel for years with proponents citing its health benefits. Other fears that using bare copper can cause illness. Those claim are true only when a green patina has formed around the copper. Ingesting such thing can cause illness in individual. However, as long as you make sure that that type of patina do not form, you should be safe.
Unlined copper are typically used for making jam and sugar. Those type of food are not reactive with copper so it wont impart any off flavor, nor will it cause the green patina to form. For this reason, since this ladle is meant to be used with their jam pan, the ladle is unlined.

Does the ladle need to made out of copper?

No, but its pretty when new. But really, what purpose is there for a copper ladle? None that I can see. So why did I buy it? Cause its copper and I have a problem with copper cookware.
If you think about it, the whole reason for using copper is for the superior heat conductivity. Using a ladle as a heat conductor makes no sense at all. If anything, it will burn your mouth more quickly when you try to taste the food. Not to mention that its going to darken and loose its shiny luster over time.
Really, its more for decoration in your home kitchen.

Cheap Baumalu Handle

This is really where you can see the cost cutting manufacturing come to light. The lade and some of their pot, have the same cheap rebar handle. It looks like they took a carbon steel rebar and bent it at some point to make it look like a handle. The center has a divot to give a small form of ergonomics and the sides have been filed to round the edges. The base is just the end of the rebar and its affixed with two copper rivets. Other than that, the fit and finish is just horrible on it. The amazon link shows to have one of the more traditional cast iron handle, try to get that version instead.

Thickness

The thickness of the ladle is .75mm. Honestly, its not as bad as I thought it would be. The main issue that I have with this is that it flexes when I squeeze it. I think this would look brilliant and benefit from a slight hammering to give it some rigidity.

Baumalu Ladle Shape

The shape is pretty well thought out. It is a traditional bowl shape with a rolled lip. The rolled lip allows for liquid and sauce to pour easily. Ladles from other manufacturer are straight sided and those should be avoided.

Should you buy Baumalu Copper Utensils?

That is really dependent on you, if you are in the market for the utensils then why not. Its affordable and almost the same price as a regular version. If you like copper utensils, then this version is a full pure copper unlike the electroplated version from other manufacturer. However, if you are looking to replace a stainless steel ladle, I recommend that you stay away from this. You will get more use out of the stainless steel version and its more convenient.
Copper utensils are usually for looks and there are no performance gain, regardless of the manufacturer. Buy it only because you want it, not because you need it. If you do want it Baumalu is still the best value on the market.

I hope you like our Baumalu Copper Cookware Review, If you would like to see more, please visit our Pots and Pans Review page.