Copper Breakfast Sets

Copper breakfast sets

Our breakfast sets bring together dishes for jam, olives, cheese and butter, most of them on a tray made to hold them. Each dish is hammered individually and the recesses in the tray are cut to their bases, so the set stays together and travels to the table as one. All food-contact surfaces are tin-lined.

The Turkish breakfast is a spread rather than a plated meal, and that is what these sets are built around. Small vessels, plenty of them, everything within reach of everyone sitting down, and nothing that needs a second trip to the kitchen. Fitting them all to one tray is what keeps a crowded table workable.

How many pieces?

A four-piece set is enough for breakfast for two. Six to eight pieces suit a full table and the spread-style Turkish breakfast. For hotels and breakfast rooms we can produce twelve-piece, stackable versions of the same shape. Lidded models keep jam and butter covered.

The individual dishes usually hold 40 to 100 ml, a good serving of jam, honey or olives without leaving so much that it goes stale before anyone finishes it. Trays for a six-piece set run 30 to 40 cm across.

Everything in this category goes to the table cold or warm, never onto the flame. If you want the eggs cooked in copper as well, that is a sahan and it lives in the pan category; these dishes are serving vessels and their tinning is not made for direct heat.

Laying it out

• Keep the wet things away from the dry: olives and cheese on one side, jam and honey on the other.
• Butter goes in a lidded dish, since it takes on the smell of everything near it.
• Leave one dish empty for stones and shells; it saves the tablecloth.
• Chill the dishes in summer and the cheese holds through a long breakfast.

Use and care

Olive and pickle brine is acidic, do not leave it standing in the dishes; empty them after breakfast. Honey and jam residue sticks as it dries, so rinse in warm water straight away. Wash by hand, never in a dishwasher, and dry the tray and the dishes separately. If the tray lives in a damp cupboard, store the dishes out of their recesses so moisture is not trapped underneath.