hi i found a tin bread dough pan, it looks like a flying saucer, but deeper, with the lid, at a flea market, for six dollars. i bought it to use it for what it was actually made for. i cleaned it up. there's no rust on it. my mom said that the old cooking stuff can give you alzeimers, leaching metal into your body, but i told her i thought that was the aluminum stuff. she says that the tin looks like aluminum, but darker. so, does anybody have any information on this? i would appreciate any help. debbie
I think your Mom may be thinking of aluminum. I've never heard of any possible health threats from tin. The best bread pans I've ever used are terra cotta. We use ours all the time. They are heavy and more of a pain to store, but worth it. My 10 year old is milling wheat right now to make bread. I usually make our bread, but her last batch turned out great so she has been anxious to make some more Happy baking!
Is it taller than wider? Does the lid have a loop handle? Steamed breads are made in these types of pans. It is probably perfectly safe. Remember, most all canned goods come in tin cans. Really old things, sometimes have lead in them. The aluminem is what is supose to cause Alzeimers... lacyj
I was going to say it sounds more like mold for plum pudding or other steamed puddings. I wouldn't use it for rising regular bread dough--more for the fact that metal reacts negatively with sourdough, and also that metal is much more temperature sensitive than say, a tall plastic pitcher with lid, which is what I sometimes use when making sourdough.
The aluminum/alzheimers connection is tenuous at best and probably nothing to worry about. A study in the late 80's found slightly elevated levels of aluminum in the brains of some deceased alzheimers patients. This led to all sorts of speculation that alzheimers is caused by aluminum. But a lot of researchers have been studying the causes of the disease since then and nobody has found any further links between it and aluminum. It's been enough time that we would have heard something. It is more likely that alzheimers patients' bodies are less efficient at flushing out trace elements, such as aluminum. In other words, it may be that the alzheimers causes the aluminum build up rather than vice versa. Tin cookware probably cannot hurt you. Health hazards related to tin involve what are known as organic tin compounds. Organic tin compounds are produced industrially for the manufacture of certain plastics, wood preservatives and pesticides. They also occur naturally in very small amounts in the Earth's crust. But those compounds are very unlikely to be present in tin cookware unless you are doing some very odd chemistry in it. There are only 2 things to worry about with old cookware. Pewter with elevated levels of lead could, in theory, be a problem if you used it constantly. Copper tarnish is also very hazardous and potentially lethal to small children. The actual copper is not dangerous. All you have to do is keep it well-polished. It is the green stuff like you see on an old penny that has been outside for a long time that you have to beware of. Interestingly, old ceramic 'fiesta-ware' made in the 50's often contains small amounts of uranium in the glaze. That's what gives it the almost supernatural punch to the color. But such small amounts of uranium would not provide enough radiation to actually harm you.
I worked with Alzheimers patients for over 7 years - most of that a program sponsored by Rush Hospital in Chicago and the director of their Alzheimers research program told me that he still used aluminum pans! The media just keeps kicking that old fairy tale around every few years.
hello, thanks for all your information. i do believe the pan is a bread dough riser, as it has small holes in the top, like to let the dough breath while it is rising. it is more oval in shape than tall. thank you for all your resposnes. debbie
