Rush, rush, rush... Well, 2 years have passed by and I haven't given this blog much thought! The time to just sit, reflect, and leisurely sit down to write more than a pressing email never seems to open up in the mad dash to get everything done in the day -- especially with our current family dynamics.
The past year has seen me spending lots of time in the kitchen and attempting to make healthy food for my extended family. One of our kids boomeranged back with 2 kids in tow. Suddenly, the need to child-proof our home cropped up again. Once again, I needed to think about food safety too and what that means with young children in the home. We are no longer former empty-nesters back together with family 24/7, but now our grand-kids have weekly sleepovers and sick-day visits. I've probably made more waffles and pancakes in the past year-and-a-half for them than I had in the past decade total! The casserole dish I was given as a wedding present back in 1981 was once again getting a lot of use as I tried out casserole recipes to find just what my granddaughters liked. I discovered that they loved cutting, mixing, and stirring the ingredients for bread pudding. Oh, and they really loved eating it too! So my freezer was filling up with left-over bread for the next round of baking. But, one evening, in the mad rush to get the dinner on the table, the casserole was bumped, slipped off of the counter, and shattered. Oh no, where could I get another? Japanese cuisine isn't heavy on baked foods and definitely not on the kind of casserole recipes that call for a can of soup of this and a soup packet of that. Many homes here don't even have an oven! So finding another baking dish would be a problem with my limited shopping choices. I looked here and there but couldn't find anything to replace it. So, in this more modern era, I turned to the internet to order something new.
Not ever really having thought about buying a casserole dish in the past decades, I discovered there were so many choices and designs that I'd never seen before than that old Cornflower blue CorningWare (or Corning Ware) casserole that everyone in my generation knows so well. I got a major shock when I learned that Corning of New York was no longer in business and had been sold out to World Kitchen Incorporated, located in Rosemont, Illinois! Not only that, but it happened years ago -- at the turn of the 21st century in fact! The old formula for the nearly indestructible pyroceram that came on the market in 1958 was just too good or perhaps lifestyles had changed and people were no longer were making the same sorts of recipes they once did. By the mid-1990s, the market was saturated and the company was struggling to survive it seems. They were churning out one design after another in what sounds like a frantic struggle to survive and re-captivate cooks with their amazing products. Also, business dealings led to diversification into things besides cookware and dishes. Business problems in different sectors of the company also fueled the bankruptcy. How sad is that? An ingenious revered American brand, discovered during the space age in a mistake during the process of making missile head tiles, gone with the changing times.
As I read more online, I learned that the new owners of the company had changed the classic CorningWare pyroceram (freezer-to-stove top, oven safe, or microwave safe) to stoneware and many people online were complaining about their brand new casseroles, produced by the new company, shattering in the oven while baking dinner or easily breaking in other strange circumstances that would have been unthinkable to the old CorningWare that people in my generation grew up with. I also read that the formula for Pyrex had been changed to something that is now much more breakable. (The old Corning Pyrex is written as PYREX while the new formula put out by World Kitchen is written in lower case letters as pyrex, just in case you want to check which type you have in your own kitchen.) I saw a lot of recommendations to buy the vintage product instead.
Hmmm.... new or old, new or old? The new designs of casseroles certainly are attractive with large wide handles, pyrex now has "easy grab" handles, but these new designs seemed just too large and randomly-shaped to easily store in my limited cabinet space. I'm not opposed to using second hand goods that still have life in them. The old CorningWare was always a "green" choice, it's eco-friendly and safe from threats of leaching hazards. It is definitely BPA-free too. I decided to look at vintage products too and compare which would best meet my needs. I needed to sit down and think about what I wanted in a "new" baking dish. First off, that white pyroceram casserole that I'd been using for nearly 35 years had been the bane of my life when it came to getting it clean. Decades of stubborn baked on gunk hid in the deepest tiniest recesses. My casserole wasn't actually sold as CorningWare but rather something that seemed nearly identical but it was made in Japan. Sadly, I didn't really take note of the manufacturer as I wasn't yet obsessed with casserole dishes. It might have been Iwaki, which long had a tie-up with Corning here in Japan. Although I'm a big fan of blue and white chinaware, I was never as enamored with the plain old blue and white Cornflower CorningWare so I didn't really want that pattern as a replacement.
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Thirty-tree year old casserole on the upper left.
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I came across the Symphony pattern online. It was a rare and very short-lived line of beige casseroles and dishes with a gentle floral pattern. Great, something that wouldn't always appear dirty and look nice on the table! The old Corning made many styles of casseroles but only produced 2 beige-toned patterns. They were Symphony and Forever Yours. They were both released in 1990 and sold until about 1994. It's a pity they didn't make more patterns in beige.
As soon as I'd ordered the Symphony casserole, I discovered there had also been a whole line of Callaway casseroles in French White! Wow! I'd missed the whole French White line of Corning during my years in Japan. But, when I discovered those, it was instant love! Elegant, sophisticated, and best of all, my everyday Western dishes just happened to be Callaway! These casseroles were only on the market for a mere 2 years between 1998 to 2000. They were made during the final days of the old Corning company as we knew and loved it. It seems that World Kitchen does still sell the French White line but now the pieces have handles and probably are made of stoneware. I had worried about removing the baking dish from the oven without handles but it's never been a problem as the ridges are fine for gripping.
To the left are 2 pyroceram ramekins made by Narumi of Japan that I've had for several decades. To the right is the 2.8-liter French White Callaway roasting dish.
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Why stop at just one? After I discovered how beautiful the first one was, I was then able to locate some new-old stock that had never been opened! I worried the 1-liter size might be too small but it actually gets use as a serving bowl and for fresh pickles that steep in vinegar. Most casserole recipes that I use call for a 2-liter (2-quart) sized dish. All 3 sizes are good for their various needs.
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Well, next I discovered that the very first CorningWare casserole came out when I was a baby in 1958! No wonder I've always known it! Online, I was able to find a first edition that was still in it's original box, that was billed as a "skillet", and had a detachable handle, and a trivet. It also had a pyroceram lid just like the standard casserole. How cool is that? Wow, that lid really makes the piece as far as I'm concerned. Maybe they decided they'd never sell any more pieces once everyone owned a nearly indestructible dish AND lid? Certainly, the first thing to bite the dust decades before my first pyroceram piece broke was the glass lid.
So, then I had FIVE casseroles in various sizes while I'd spent more than 3 decades using just one! There's nothing like telling you that you can no longer get something to make you rush out and grab everything in sight!
Well, it seems like you can't read about the downfall of Corning without also reading about the boom in a younger generation going wild over vintage PYREX. I was scratching my head over that, at first! That hideous old stuff that every household had a piece or 2 of in their kitchen when I was a kid? I'm sure I must have broken more than one Cinderella mixing bowl in the tacky Amish Butterprint pattern while learning to cook as a child. Ah, but times have changed and Mid-Century is now cool! Not only that, since the stuff is "vintage" and fairly easy to find on the cheap second-hand, people are collecting it as groupings of decorative art as decor rather than for the functional use it was first intended for. It's come out from the deep recesses of the cupboard to be displayed in pride of place. As the old folks would say, while shaking their heads, when I was a kid, "Wonders never cease."! But, pictures I've seen online really do look attractive with so many pieces grouped together and color coordinated.
Maybe I shouldn't let this fad pass me by, I reasoned. The Snowflake pattern caught my eye online. I don't recall ever having seen that pattern at any potluck in my childhood. But it is very pretty and snowflakes are always classic. I was amazed to read it came on to the market at the time I was born during the Christmas season of 1956. So we were both in the oven at the same time, so to speak! The charcoal version was the shortest lived and retired in 1960, the turquoise on a white background in 1963, and the white on turquoise background in 1967. Along with the Pink Daisy pattern, they were the first printed patterns on the opal line of PYREX. I was saved from the Pyrex buying bug though just because I just don't have much storage or display space in my very tiny Japanese kitchen. But, learning the history around this particular pattern and having 2 granddaughters, I decided to buy 2 pieces to hopefully pass on to them someday.
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| 1950s turquoise Pyrex gets a new life for the Frozen generation! |
Well, the third product you think of when you hear "Corning" is Corelle. In 1976, I told my mother I had decided to get married. Besides arguing that I was making a mistake and should wait, she promptly went out and purchased a set of Old Town-Blue Onion Corelle for me. That relationship didn't last, heck it didn't even get as far as the wedding, but 40 years later most of that set is still around. For the record, I really, really hated that pattern too. But, some years later, when I actually did get married, I brought it to Japan with me. Something about it just never attracted me so I was happy to fob most it off on my daughter when she left home and needed a starter set of dishes.
Christmas 1989
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| Birthday 2015 |
I've read online that some 2,000 patterns of Corelle have been released since it was first launched in 1970!
The first Corelle I ever spotted in Japan is a pattern that was most likely never released in the USA. Replacements.com lists it in their unknown patterns as COR 143. I was only able to buy 3 soup bowls in this pattern as that was all that was in stock in the store I purchased them at and they were sold individually. They've seen a lot of use over the past twenty-some years, though.
In 1995, I made a trip to the USA and found the brand-new Callaway pattern in a store and purchased several pieces. I think I added a few extra pieces to expand the set on my next trip to the States in 1997. The pattern looks nice in all seasons and the light swirls and ripples make it look so much more elegant and suitable to use along with real bone china than the stodgy original Corelle ever did. I also have several Japanese everyday dishes that look nice together with Callaway.
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| Callaway pattern |
Well the buying spree continued. Although I already had my original Old Town-Blue Onion platter and a Callaway platter, I decided to add in a Forever Yours platter. 
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Although the online seller described this Forever Yours platter as having normal light utensil marks it actually looked like the previous owners must have carved roasts on it several times a week over the past 25 years! Rustling up some white lacy paper seemed to do the trick in making it look OK.
The more Corelle patterns that I viewed online the more patterns I saw that I wanted! I was completely addicted! I saw Holly Rim and wanted one large 10-inch dinner plate in that pattern too as it would mix and match well with a holiday serving plate I already owned. Holly Rim was a pattern sold between 2006 to 2008 by World Kitchen. It's such a whimsical carefree pattern that I look forward to using and was surprised that it had such a short lived time on the shelf.
 Oh, I shouldn't be greedy, I reasoned. My daughter has a summer birthday, she loves sunflowers and checked patterns. Sunsations would be perfect for her, I thought! It sold for only 1 year between 1996 to 1997. I found some sellers online and picked out 2 different sized plates for her. Sadly, when the first 2 plates arrived from the first seller they showed very heavy utensil use and I didn't feel right about giving her something that was so obviously second-hand. Actually, I think the overall design appealed more to my American tastes than it would to her Japanese ones. Anyway, the pattern makes me so sunny and happy so I ended up keeping it and find it's perfect for cheerful breakfasts!
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Do I dare admit that the buying frenzy continued? Corelle is in some ways perfect for a tiny Japanese home. It is so slim that it stacks away neatly, using little of one's precious shelf space. One plate placed over one dish makes refrigerator storage easy so I don't need masses of Tupperware or other space taking plastic storage containers. I've always considered it my insurance plan for when we have the next Big One so we'll hopefully still have something to eat from. There's just one big problem... Well, maybe more than one. But, one thing is design. Japan is a food culture. Food here is not randomly mounded onto one 10-inch dinner plate. Instead, each serving of food is artfully placed in it's own individual serving dish or plate. For each meal, we might have 1 soup bowl, 1 rice bowl, 1 small plate for fish, a couple of small plates for vegetables or tofu... Yes, we easily use 5 or 6 dishes, per person, per meal! Not everything is in the exact same pattern and there might be a mixture of wood, chinaware, stoneware, and so on. So, that was part of my problem with the Old Town-Blue Onion original Corelle pattern. It just didn't look attractive when serving Japanese food and the blue printed pattern just looked odd mixed with handmade ceramic or china pieces.
So, dare I admit that just when I thought I'd spent way too much money on casseroles and table dishes that we didn't urgently need, I discovered a Corelle pattern that perfectly suited my everyday Japanese dishes! Behold, Botanique! World Kitchen came out with the pattern between 2007 to 2009. The indigo blue on white could easily pass for something created and fired in a kiln here in Japan! Quality control doesn't seem quite as good on these plates as on the vintage Corelle, though. Between the 4 bread plate sized pieces I now own in Botanique, there are variations in color tone, placement of pattern, and other slight imperfections that I never saw on the older ones. But that actually suits this particular design so I won't quibble.
Really, that should have been the end of this addiction. My cupboard space is seriously limited, after all. But, then one day, I happened upon a Corelle pattern being sold in a local Do It Yourself home center store. What, Corelle here in my little town in Japan? I rarely ever see Corelle here and I know only one store some distance from home that usually has a couple of divided Corelle plates or Winter White serving bowls in stock. But here was a full patterned set in a variety of sizes being sold individually! Oh, come on, it's such a rare event to see this here and I can always make use of some more mini-mini sized plates. Yes, if only they'd been in Botanique indigo blue and white they would have been perfect! But, I loaded my shopping basket with a few, and then put them back on the shelf as being a frivolous purchase, but in the end I walked out of that store carrying some Sweet Strawberry Corelle. It's a pattern that's sold only here in Japan. These were much pricier than the vintage Corelle I've been buying up online but I didn't have to pay for shipping so it worked out about the same in price. Hopefully, this really is the end. Who would have ever thought that breaking one ugly old casserole would have ended up like this?!
P.S. Of course you know I have no affiliation to either the Corning or World Kitchen companies. I just love dishes!
