pan—can be an extremely difficult thing to assess given the variations in mass, thickness, shape, size, and material from one design to the next. Not to mention that the effectiveness of any given pan is dependent on what's being cooked in it, and the experience of the hands using the tools in question.
I want to add that I personally find a well-made copper pan to be an object of beauty in the kitchen, like a great piece of, and that aesthetic quality can have value in and of itself. Its preciousness can remind you to pay more attention as you cook and, consequently, can help you cook better. At least, it does if you find meaning in the form of an object and not just its ability to accomplish a task.One of the key things to know about copper is that it's reactive.
The downside is that tin has a low melting point of around 450°F , which a pan can quickly reach if left over a flame unattended and empty. For this reason, tin-lined copper should never be preheated while empty, and it should never be used for very high-heat searing . You will, on occasion, see copper lined with nickel, a practice that was briefly popular in the '90s, but has since fallen out of favor. More extravagantly, some copper pans are lined with silver. Silver, it turns out, is an even better conductor of heat than copper , and it's supposedly very nonstick, though given the price, I don't expect to ever be able to confirm this firsthand.
There are copper pans that aren't tinned, though -- jam pans, and Falk pans(which bond stainless to the copper).
Can you expand on this for maintenance? I’ve gotten some copper but haven’t begun using it for fear of messing it up.