CorningWare

CorningWare, Blue Cornflower design. © Cooksinfo / 2019.

CorningWare® is a glass material that cooking dishes of the same name are made of. Some electric stovetops are also made from it.

Most CorningWare cooking vessels can be used on both the stovetop and in the oven. Just check the bottom; if it is stovetop safe, it will say so on the bottom.

They can also be used in microwaves.

CorningWare is opaque; you can’t see through it, as you can with Pyrex®.

There have been many different patterns printed on it over the years. One popular pattern was “Blue Cornflower”, which was made from 1958-1988, revived in 1993-1994, and again from 2009 to the present (2020 at time of writing.) ^[1]Vintage Corning Ware Patterns – 1958-2001. CorningWare 411. Accessed January 2020 at http://www.corningware411.com/p/welcome-to-consolidated-patterns-page.html Another was French White, produced 1978 to current day (as of time of writing in 2020.) Many other patterns have been printed in limited editions.

There is no CorningWare in the UK; it never made it across the pond. There is, however, Pyrex.

Corningware, French white design. Wendy / flickr / 2011 / CC BY 2.0

History Notes

CorningWare was invented accidentally by a Dr Donald Stookey in 1953. He overheated a piece of “Fotoform” glass, and called the new glass “pyroceram.”

It was introduced commercially in 1958 by the Corning Glass Works.

It became very popular in North America in the 1960s and 1970s.

Corningware, Country Festival design printed 1975-76. Gerrilynn Nunley / flickr / 2011 / CC BY 2.0