What is this pan for?

[TheAndroid]

Metal content. Sort of. My best friend's wife saw this in an antique store. Thought I'd might know. I do not. That drives me nuts!

[Mike Burdick]

I'll venture a guess...

In the good old days if the bacon wasn't greasy enough you could take that pan, fill with oil, and run the bacon across the roller - of course the "excess" would drain back to the reservoir so it wasn't too bad!

[A.K. Boomer]

I don't know for sure but it's amazing -- it's worth more than 15 bucks...

the float is possibly a "tell at a glance and distance" gauge - so u don't run low on water...

the unit may have been anything from an old potpourri vessel to an apparatus for thawing out meats and such?


whatever it is it's cool

edit; may have been a first attempt at a vaporizer --- throw a little eucalyptus in there and "shazamm"

[sasquatch]

Very interesting, never seen such a thing.

Wonder if it is kitchen related or for another purpose.?

[justanengineer]

Both myself and her have a similar pair without the loose piece. Hers is for kitchen use while mine is for camping. Think of it as a collander combined with a pot.

[J Tiers]

it appears to be made to apply some "cooking compound" or "substance" to something..... perhaps not to bacon, as Mike B said, but some other item. the roller appears to me to have an axle on bent-down tabs.

Could apply melted shortening, melted frosting of some sort, etc.

Perhaps it is a baker's or confectioner's pan.

[A.K. Boomer]

Good eye JT - there is something going on there - also could just be a vert slot to keep it from wondering off...

what a unique little cookermajigger

[TheAndroid]

We thought it might be some kind of candy pan also. My wife vaguely remembers her grandfather having a pot like this to do something with molasses.

To heighten the mystery, my friend's wife says the lid does NOT come off. For awhile, I thought it might be some sort of hard candy spreader (note the wear on the top rim). Turn it upside down, and the roller would spread out the candy.

However, without being able to remove the lid, how would you clean it?

Next I thought "Powdered sugar spreader?" But why the hollow handle? That's usually reserved for very hot things.

[A.K. Boomer]

so is that roller thing solidly anchored? or does it have travel?

[lugnut]

I'm thinking some sort of steamer????????????

[Boostinjdm]

I think it's kitchen art. Totally useless, but somebody still paid money for it.

[sasquatch]

A RARE collectible, probably only a limited production run of 6 , maybe by some warped tinsmith ?

Hope someone can identify this thing, maybe it's a medical device for testing womens urine?

[Steelspinner76]

I would venture to guess it was made to apply some type of paste or adhesive
something that would be thick enough to cling to the roller. or possibly some type of cloth tape or something like that that needed to be wet before application. put tape in hole in pot. feed over roller. fill pan with water excess water drips into drain holes when tape is pulled over roller. or maybe it's a weird steam seaming device. or possibly for applying wax? not sure but those are my guesses

Wayne

[A.K. Boomer]

or possibly some type of cloth tape or something like that that needed to be wet before application.

Wayne

They did put allot of asbestos tape on heat vent pipes back in the day - it had to be wetted before application, maybe steam helped I don't know - now that im looking at it - it does not look like there would be enough clearance for it to be some kind of float gauge so im definitely leaning to the roller idea,
although - why go through all the trouble of making a water tight roller if it's solidly mounted - could have just been a hamster type cage

plus I would think you would want some kind of frictional surface more than what it has to ensure rolling

[J Tiers]

Yep... no guarantee it is a cooking device even though it "looks like a cook pan"......

The hollow handle is probably just because that company did metal stuff, and a hollow metal handle is cheap if you already do metal forming and need a handle that won't get too hot.