Care
A Mauviel pan is not delicate. It is simply honest — it will show you exactly what you did to it.
Almost every complaint about premium cookware comes down to one thing, and it is not the pan. It is heat. Below are Mauviel1830’s own six rules, transcribed from the 2026 manufacturer catalogue, followed by what to do when copper dulls or tin wears through.
The six rules
- Stainless steel does not stick. Overheating sticks. If food is catching, the pan is too hot. Never exceed two thirds of your hob’s maximum power. If the dial goes to 9, do not go past 6. Ignore this and you will not only ruin the cooking — you can bulge the base, and it can happen on the very first use. This applies to every Mauviel collection, black steel included.
- Wash it before the first use. Hot water and soap, rinse, dry. That is all a new pan needs.
- Hand wash, always. The potassium in dishwasher detergent is corrosive. It attacks coatings and it attacks the aluminium sandwiched inside a multi-ply body. Never use bleach — it can perforate the stainless layer.
- Keep the flame under the pan. On gas, the flame should never lick up the sides. It does nothing for the cooking and it discolours the metal.
- Salt only once the water boils. Salt dropped into cold water sits on the base and pits the stainless, leaving white marks that never fully come out.
- Wood or silicone on non-stick. Metal utensils, scouring pads, steel wool, abrasive cleaners and oven cleaner will all damage a coated surface. Nothing harder than a wooden spoon.
Copper tarnishes. That is not a fault.
Copper oxidises in air. It will go from mirror to dull bronze in a few weeks and it makes no difference whatever to how the pan cooks. Some cooks like the patina and leave it. If you want the mirror back, it takes under a minute.
Copperbrill is the paste Mauviel’s own workshop uses. Soft cloth or sponge, a small amount, work it over the copper, rinse in warm water, dry and polish. Inobrill does the same job on stainless steel. A 1 litre tin lasts a household years; the 150 ml is the sensible size for a few pieces.
- 1Copperbrill 1 LR2,390. Buy it once.
- 2Copperbrill 150 mlR500. Right size for two or three pans.
- 3Inobrill 150 mlR500. For M’Cook, M’Cook B and M’Elite.
When the tin wears through
M’Tradition is lined with tin applied by hand. Tin is soft — that is what makes it release food so well — and after years of use it thins. When you start to see copper coming through the lining, the pan needs re-tinning before you cook in it again.
This is not the end of the pan. Re-tinning is an ongoing activity of the Mauviel manufacture, done by the traditional hand-wipe method using the purest grade A tin. A re-tinned pan is as good as a new one, and this is the single reason a hand-tinned copper pan is a fifty-year object rather than a ten-year one.
Damaged non-stick can also be redone rather than binned — Mauviel strips the worn coating and applies a new one. Talk to us and we will arrange it with the manufacture.
Maximum temperatures
| Surface | Limit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Tinned copper (M’Tradition) | 227 °C | Tin begins to melt at about 229 °C |
| 18/10 stainless (M’Cook, M’Elite, M’6 S, M’Héritage) | Oven safe | Never past two thirds hob power — the aluminium core is what warps |
| Non-stick | Moderate heat only | Coatings degrade well below the temperature the metal can take |
| Bare carbon steel (M’Steel) | As hot as you like | There is nothing on it to damage. Season it, and dry it on the heat |
Seasoning carbon steel
M’Steel arrives bare. Wash off the protective film, dry it, then heat it with a very thin film of neutral oil until it smokes and darkens. Let it cool, wipe, repeat two or three times. The surface polymerises into a hard black patina which is the non-stick coating — and unlike a manufactured one, it repairs itself every time you cook.
Never put it in the dishwasher. After washing, put it back on the heat for thirty seconds to drive off the water. That is the whole maintenance regime.
These instructions are Mauviel1830’s own, from the 2026 manufacturer catalogue. See Mauviel1830 for the manufacture’s own guidance. Anything you are unsure about, ask us before you scrub — The Culinary Equipment Co is the appointed South African distributor and we would rather advise you than replace a pan.