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Currently there are three major materials for hiking/lightweight cookware ruling the market:

  • Aluminium
  • Titanium
  • Stainless Steel

Each of those materials has several advantages and disadvantages:

  • Aluminium is very lightweight, cheap, has a great heat conductivity but it stands in discussion about dangers of Alzheimer's Disease. At least, it is easy to clean.
  • Titanium is lightweight also, is not poisonous but is a bad heat conductor and difficult to clean.
  • Stainless Steel is more heavy than the others, is hygienically great but is also not a good heat conductor (at least, better than titanium).

So my question is:

Why are we not using Copper instead of the three materials above?

  • Copper is lightweight.
  • Copper is the best heat conductor you can get.
  • Copper seems to not cause any risk to health.
Toby Speight
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Dave
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    Aluminium isn't actually all that easy to clean, partly because it scratches easily and dirt sticks to the scratches – Chris H Sep 25 '21 at 19:09
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    Available evidence suggests that aluminum doesn't cause Alzheimer's; rather, Alzheimer's plaques attract aluminum. – Mark Sep 26 '21 at 00:31
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    ‘not any risk to health’ You have not done almost any practical research if you think that. Pure copper is relatively low health risk, but the same is also true of pure lead. However, copper ions in solution are toxic at a concentration as low as 1 mg/L. The problem is that if the food is even remotely acidic, it will readily dissolve some amount of the copper. This is why the traditional copper mugs used to serve Moscow mules (a cocktail made with vodka and ginger beer) are almost always steel plated on the inside and lip these days. – Austin Hemmelgarn Sep 26 '21 at 02:34
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    Further to Mark's correct point that aluminium isn't now thought to be a cause, aluminium's oxide layer is also very tough and prevents aluminium entering the food unless you cook anything very acidic.. And further to that, I highly recommend Tefal's Teflon camping cookware - mine has lasted 20 years without damage. The Teflon coating of course will stop anything getting through. – Graham Sep 26 '21 at 08:04
  • @Graham: Of course, the teflon itself (and the PFOA used in its production) is under suspicion for toxicity as well (it might not be hugely toxic, but your body eliminates it excruciatingly slowly, so if it has any negative effects, they last for decades). Arguably better off consuming the metals. – ShadowRanger Sep 26 '21 at 14:48
  • BTW there's also enamelled steel, though the pros/cons would be similar to stainless. I use an enamelled mug for boiling water (when travelling light that's about all the cooking I do) seen here in a test at home – Chris H Sep 27 '21 at 12:47
  • My wife was told to ditch copper due to some weird allergy on her hands. – Davor Sep 27 '21 at 14:47
  • @Davor copper sensitivity is known, but some (non-cooking, I think) copper products are alloyed with nickel, and reactions to nickel are common – Chris H Sep 27 '21 at 15:08

6 Answers6

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Copper is about the same density as stainless. It is relatively toxic so is always coated for cooking. Copper and copper compounds are used for sea water boat hulls because it kills or repels barnacles, etc. The traditional pewter/tin coating on copper cookware can fairly easily be melted on an open fire leaving some bare copper. Stainless clad copper is very durable but a very expensive alternative to lighter aluminum. PS ; it is not easy to recoat with pewter and get a good looking result.

blacksmith37
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    Copper is also rather weak, and might have to be thicker than stainless (=heavier). The toxicity is only a problem in certain cases, after all it's used for drinking water pipes. Jam-making pans are traditionally uncoated copper too, but it does react with certain food acids. – Chris H Sep 25 '21 at 19:05
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    In addition to acids it usually corrodes ( releasing toxic ions) when salts are present. As it is difficult to make a listing of possible acids and salts , it is likely better to use some other material . But copper is good for heating potable water , eg teapots. – blacksmith37 Sep 25 '21 at 19:25
  • You're right - my "certain cases" does include a fair bit of everyday cooking – Chris H Sep 26 '21 at 06:18
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    +1 for the poisoning risk. Copper is also very expensive. You really only need a slab for homogenising the BTU distribution. You also need to keep uncoated Copper out of contact with Aluminium in storage. – mckenzm Sep 26 '21 at 06:40
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    "The toxicity is only a problem in certain cases, after all it's used for drinking water pipes." Lead was also used for making drinking water pipes. That's not really an argument in copper's favor! – nick012000 Sep 26 '21 at 07:40
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    @nick012000 While we're not fallible, I do believe modern scientists to be a bit better than Roman scientists at determining whether materials pose long term risks or not. – corsiKa Sep 27 '21 at 05:16
  • @corsiKa The US was still using lead pipes in new houses until the 1980s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_service_line – nick012000 Sep 27 '21 at 05:52
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    @nick012000 I mean, that's a neat fact, I suppose. Glad they stopped putting them in new houses before over half of that country was born, and that we have controls on the toxicity of the pipes on the water (for both lead and copper.) I'm not sure why you think it or your link supports your peculiar claim, but you DO realize we only use copper because we found out lead was toxic, right? Lead is cheaper, easier to work with, it's better in every way except for the whole killing people part. Heck, we still call people who work with pipes plumbers, even though they never work with lead anymore. – corsiKa Sep 27 '21 at 06:54
  • @nick012000 although even lead was pretty low risk for water pipes. Copper is certainly better. – Tim Sep 27 '21 at 07:34
  • The risk of lead have been known about for quite some time, but were so low as to be non-existent with many water sources. Corrosion (which could be due dissolved gases in the water in the pipes; pH plays a part too) and surface damage are another matter – Chris H Sep 27 '21 at 07:58
  • Even if you have copper pipes, there's likely lead solder used to put them together. The risks of lead and copper in water lines is managed by the formation of scale that lines the pipes. This is why lead pipes did not cause issues for the Romans, contrary to some claims. A big part of water treatment is making sure the water contains minerals that cause this to happen. The recent issues with lead in Flint were caused by switching to a water source that wasn't properly treated. That water ate away at the protective layer. – JimmyJames Sep 28 '21 at 16:33
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In the question, you have stated several false and-or dubious claims:

Copper is lightweight

Copper is more dense ("heavier") than all of the three listed alternatives; it has density of 8.9 g/cm3, which is higher than aluminum (2.7 g/cm3), steel (7.7 to 8.1 g/cm3) and titanium (4.5 g/cm3).

Copper is the best heat conducter [sic] you can get

There actually are better heat conductors than copper, they are just not applicable: for example silver (expensive), diamond (prohibitively expensive and challenging to machine into shapes resembling cookware), boron arsenide (used for cooling systems of electronic components; while arsenic itself is highly toxic and carcinogenic, boron arsenide is supposedly inert and non-toxic, but brittle and difficult to machine, and even if it was possible to make cookware from it, I wouldn't trust it). What is more, thermal conductivity does not really matter that much in cooking because the limiting factor for cooking speed is the amount of heat generated per time unit by the burner, not the thermal conductivity of the cookware. This is not an overclocked processor nor a nuclear reactor, just an ordinary gas burner with a metal pot.

Copper seems to not cause any risk to health

Please do at least minimum amount of research before asking questions on SE. A quick few-minutes-long read on Wikipedia proves that it is not true. It is an essential element and is not hyper-toxic (you won't drop dead after eating a single dish cooked in copper pot), but excess intake causes a wide range of adverse effects, so yes, copper can definitely harm one's health.

Copper is not that reactive, but nonetheless it can slowly leach from the cookware into foods and liquids being cooked. Low pH and presence of anions such as chloride facilitates this process.

One of the reasons is that pure copper is soft and mechanically inferior to the listed alternatives, especially steel. What it more, water-soluble copper salts have an unpleasant bitter taste, so besides toxicity risks, they can also adversely affect taste of the food and fluids being cooked in the pot.

  • Great, so let's make cookware out of boron arsenide! Arsenic certainly doesn't cause Alzheimer's, right? – leftaroundabout Sep 25 '21 at 23:08
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    @leftaroundabout Understood the concern, updated my answer, thanks for comment. –  Sep 25 '21 at 23:19
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    @leftaroundabout: Please try to understand the difference between an element (or a compound such as arsenic trioxide), and that element in a compound. For instance, elemental sodium is a highly reactive metal (it will react explosively with water), and elemental chlorine is a deadly gas (used as a weapon in WWI), yet their combination is ordinary table salt. – jamesqf Sep 26 '21 at 02:59
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    @jamesqf quite a few elements are toxic in any (or almost any) form. Even profoundly insoluble forms like barium sulphate (a common contrast substance in medical x-ray practice) can take some unexpected route to becoming soluble and toxic. – fraxinus Sep 26 '21 at 07:27
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    This discussion is reminding me of uraniumware ceramics and thoriated glass. – pjc50 Sep 27 '21 at 08:24
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    I think the statement "Copper is the best heat conducter you can get" is actually a fairly reasonable approximation in the context of this question. At least a lot more reasonable than fantasising about cookware made from boron arsenide or pure diamond. IMHO that whole section of this answer should be removed. – fgysin Sep 27 '21 at 08:26
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Copper cookware IS used for cooking (at least, in the mediterranean culture I am native to). For people familiar with this, it is considered obvious that:

  1. It is not lightweight at any rate. The copper is both denser than the steel and less rigid, so the same container must be made from thicker metal sheet.

  2. It HAS to be tin-coated. Tin coating is not very durable, so it has to be periodically maintained. Tin cover is also particularily vulnerable to harsh cleaning methods.

Compromised tin coating makes the food blue (it becomes untasty before it is really dangerous to eat). Sour things are not to be left in copper containers for any substantial amount of time.

  1. The only reason these things exist is that it was once easier to make them from copper. They are inferior to anything modern.

All these things combined make copper cookware quite unsuitable for hiking, even if it is sometimes used for cooking at home.

fraxinus
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    Are you saying that people use copper cookware for hiking/backpacking purposes? It’s my understanding at least, that the question is focused on hiking more than in general cookware usage – fyrepenguin Sep 26 '21 at 08:42
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    I am explaining why people do use copper cookware, but not for hiking. – fraxinus Sep 26 '21 at 10:04
  • https://www.marthastewart.com/1127669/collecting-copper-cookware – Digital Trauma Sep 27 '21 at 17:22
  • @fyrepenguin I have seen a copper cezve (Turkish coffee pot) used on a campsite, but presumably car camping (when I'd take my moka pot) rather than backpacking (coffee sock or brew Turkish style in my enamel mug) – Chris H Sep 27 '21 at 21:22
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Copper has another undesirable property: it's an excellent electrical conductor and also has a quite high standard electrode potential, which means it will happily create electrochemical cells when in contact with other metals. This usually happens when you put different utensils together in a dish washer: metals which normally don't oxydize, such as stainless steel, may oxydize when they are in contact with materials with a higher potential, such as silver or copper.

Dmitry Grigoryev
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  • While true, I'm not sure I see how this is all that relevant to the current discussion. I certainly don't have a dishwasher while camping – noah Sep 27 '21 at 16:34
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    @noah, you don't need a dishwasher, you just need a copper pot, a steel spoon, and a salty or acidic food. – Mark Sep 27 '21 at 23:15
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I joined this community, because I fel no one has answered the question. There's a few answers about "diamond being more conductive than copper" and "copper is slightly toxic, but so are other metals" which I found un-helpful. More people criticizing the asker than answering the intent of the question.

Answer: Copper is Expensive

Surprised this was not mentioned. Copper is superior for cookware, but is expensive. You'll notice in high quality cookware they use copper cores, e.g. "All-Clad Copper Core Cookware".

Copper provides the highest thermal conductivity among non-noble metals and is therefore fast heating with unparalleled heat distribution

Using modern metal bonding techniques, such as cladding, copper is frequently incorporated into cookware constructed of primarily dissimilar metal, such as stainless steel, often as an enclosed diffusion layer

Stainless steel is sometimes critiqued for compromising the efficacy of the copper.

Aluminum has 61 percent of the conductivity of copper, but has only 30 percent of the weight of copper.

Stainless steel has 10 percent of the conductivity of copper, and has about 88 percent of the weight of copper.

So the negatives for copper are: (1) it is heavier, (2) more expensive. Copper is more reactive, but pretty much all modern cookware coats copper. Is it also worth mentioning that copper looks cooler.

Copper is lightweight. [True-ish] It is the heaviest of all the common cookware metals, but only marginally heavier than stainless steal. Should pose no carrying issues, unless you are carrying a ton of pats/pans.

Copper is the best heat conductor you can get. [True] Within reason of course.

Copper seems to not cause any risk to health. [True-ish] Yes, modern copper pots and pans will not pose and serious health risks, no-more-so than other metals.

Matthaeus Gaius Caesar
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  • It's a good point, but plenty of people will pay premium prices for camping gear. The thing is they normally do it to save weight and buy titanium. Compared to Ti copper is cheap at 1/4 the price per tonne, and if you can find a solid copper pan (excluding handmade - they do exist) it's cheaper than a Ti pan of the same size. But it's far heavier. – Chris H Sep 29 '21 at 11:05
  • BTW for copper to look cool, use stainless with a thin plating. I have a pan like that, not for how it looks but because it was cheap when I was looking for one that wasn't non-stick – Chris H Sep 29 '21 at 11:06
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Drinking water and eating food from copper utensils is considered safe, although copper can keep meals warm for an extended period. Cooking salty foods in copper vessels, on the other hand, is not recommended because the iodin in salt quickly reacts with copper, releasing more copper particles. As a result, you must exercise caution when cooking with such equipment. Excessive copper consumption can be lethal. Ingesting excessive amounts of copper salts through your skin could result in serious poisoning. Copper can accumulate in your brain, liver, and lungs after passing through your internal organs. Copper poisoning can make people extremely ill.

The material is stainless steel. Stainless steel is one of the most widely available and excellent cooking vessels that you should consider.

cristy
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  • Copper is certainly used in cookware (including high-end professional kitchens) despite the possibility of contamination. The toxicity of copper alone is not really a reason why it might not be used for camping cookware. As others have pointed out there is a toxicity issue of tin melting at campfire heat exposing copper, but without that aspect there is no inherent issue with copper being dangerous. – noah Sep 27 '21 at 16:38