Pots & Pans
Buy and sell pots and pans in Costa Rica.
Come Christmas, a family tamale-making day needs a pot tall enough to boil dozens of banana-leaf tamales tied in pairs, and for the rest of the year that pot sits on top of a cupboard. Big aluminium stockpots like that are listed here new and pre-owned, next to the everyday frying pan, saucepans with glass lids, cast-iron skillets and stainless sets. Before you go to see a used one, ask for a photo of the inside floor in daylight: it shows a worn coating or a pitted base better than any description can.
Stockpots for Christmas tamales and a Sunday beef soup:
a big pot is bought by what has to fit in it. Tamales tied in pairs want a pot wide enough to lay them flat and tall enough to keep them under boiling water for as long as they cook, and a Sunday beef soup with whole pieces of cassava, corn on the cob and squash needs height more than width. Thin pressed aluminium is the classic: light to lift when full, quick to boil and cheap. Its weakness is acid. Tomato stews and anything left standing overnight darken and pit an aluminium floor, so a stainless stockpot with a thick base is the better buy if the pot will do more than boil water. When the tamales come out, the platters for the table are under serveware.
Frying pans, saucepans and what the handle tells you:
a frying pan with a bakelite or plastic handle stays on the burner, while one with an all-metal handle can go into the oven to finish a dish. Non-stick is forgiving with fish and anything cheesy, but it wants a wooden or silicone spoon and medium heat; heating it empty on high is what ruins it. Stainless takes a metal spatula and fierce heat for browning, though food sticks until you learn to heat the pan before the oil goes in. Cast iron is heavy, slow and close to indestructible, the one pan that gets better with use. On a saucepan, a glass lid lets you watch the rice without lifting it, and a small steam vent stops the lid rattling. Moulds and oven trays sit under baking.
A thin non-stick frying pan against a heavy stockpot:
a pressed-aluminium non-stick frying pan costs under ₡10,000 new, which is why a used one rarely finds a buyer: nobody crosses town to save a few thousand colones on a pan whose coating is tired. A big stockpot with a thick base and a lid that fits runs from around ₡20,000 to ₡50,000 new, and that is where second-hand value holds. Thick metal does not wear out, so a pot that only came down for the Christmas tamales cooks exactly as it did new, and age alone takes little off its price.
Blisters, loose rivets and a pitted aluminium floor:
look inside first. A non-stick surface with bubbles or raised patches has been overheated and will start lifting, however good the outside looks. On aluminium, a whitish film of scale or starch is cosmetic, but small pits you can feel with a fingertip mean acid or salt sat in the pot, and that floor will keep getting worse. Rainbow tints on stainless are only heat and polish off. Grip each handle and twist: a riveted handle that moves has worked loose, a screwed bakelite one can usually be tightened, and a cracked one is a burn waiting to happen. Set every lid on its own pot, because a lid from another set rocks and lets the steam out. On cast iron, orange surface rust scrubs off and the pan can be seasoned again; a crack, however fine, is the end of it.
A big pot for sale, measured and photographed inside:
give the diameter and height, or the capacity if it is stamped on the base, because someone cooking tamales for the whole family needs to know how much it holds. Say what it is made of and whether it has been through a dishwasher, which dulls aluminium and shortens the life of a non-stick coating. Photograph the inside floor in daylight, then the handles and the lid, and for a set list the pieces and say if any lid is missing. If a stockpot only came out at Christmas, say so: a buyer coming from Desamparados or Santa Cruz knows a pot used that rarely has hardly been worn, and will still want to look at the floor before paying.