For as long as I can remember, the cookware in my home has been given a day off every fortnight. A day for rest and pampering—a spa day, if you will. This is how it goes: Copper, steel, and bronze cookware and silverware are heaped on a kitchen counter. Then they’re placed, one by one, under a running tap and drenched in cold water. Coconut coir or a kitchen sponge is dipped in a salmon-pink powder that has been sprinkled over the counter and used to scrub each utensil vigorously. The vessels are allowed to rest under their powdery masks for a few minutes, and once washed and dried, their glossiest sheens are revealed.
That pink miracle-worker is called Pitambari, a deep cleanser-polisher that helps return metalware to their original shine. The word ‘pitambari’ is a combination of two Marathi words: ‘pit’ for brass, and ‘tamb’ for copper, but it can be used across a range of metals, including silver, stainless steel, aluminum and iron. For nearly four decades now, its tarnish-attacking properties has found it an abiding place in Indian households; in 2009, it found its way to the United States, making it available in major Indian grocery stores and online marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart.
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