• Columnists

Thrift stores are your friend

• Scott Daniels: We Ate Well and Cheaply
• September 9, 2021
• 1178

If you love food and cooking, chances are you’re watching at least one or two television shows that feed into this, and there are certainly plenty of them out there, from the fussy, highly produced profiles of tweezer chefs to the plain, old diner food finds.

I like to pick out things in movies I own or would want to find, and this also is true of food programming. You might be watching how much salt they’re putting into the cold cucumber soup, but I want to know where they got that food mill or such a large wooden spoon or oddball food processor blade.

Oftentimes, you can find a match, and just as often, it’s ridiculously expensive. I spotted some silver bowls a TV host used to serve a sauce that were worth pursuing for fun and was astonished to find them at almost $400 each. Or the wine glasses that turned out to be made by a 400-year-old French glassblower at several hundred dollars per stem. That’s just nuts.

Thrift stores, and there are numerous such places all around us, are your friend. I found eight crystal wine glasses nearly identical to those I saw on television at a thrift last week for $2 a pop. We are now set for Thanksgiving dinner with family without having a different kind of wine glass for each person.

Yes, it’s a strictly first-world problem, but it’s pretty satisfying to find something like that and save a few thousand dollars. Even if I had a few million growing moldy in the bank, I’d be happy about something like that.

That $400 footed silver sauce bowl with handles? Small Revere silver plated bowls are as common as dandelions at second-hand stores for $5 or so. A little polishing and it’s close enough.

We recycled a wide, short candle jar and keep it next to the stove. It’s filled with a dozen or so spoons in all sizes and several patterns, at the ready for tasting a dish in progress or a quick stir without stopping to rummage around in a drawer.

Old, orphaned spoons are easily found in thrift stores, usually tied in bundles for the price of a fast-food sandwich. It takes no time at all to polish away the tarnish, and you’re all set. All that shiny silver and glass also looks good on the counter.

Oversized copper pans are only a dream for most cooks, costing hundreds of dollars for the good stuff. My big, oval, copper, tin-lined gratin pan, made in France long ago, turned up for less than $30. It was proof it’s worth taking the time to dig to the bottom of a pile of junk.

Now that Labor Day is behind us and we can look ahead to sweaters and hot soups, it’s a good time to scout for small things that can make a big difference.

Even if you don’t care squat about a silver bowl or silly spoons, chances are you know a cook who would appreciate such a gift. If you start looking now, you could easily put together a jar full of tasting spoons for someone for Christmas. You’ll have almost no money in it, and it will likely be well received.

Some things will always be pricey and out of reach for most of us, and frankly, I’m just not interested in owning a bunch of matched sterling silver flatware or expensive crystal. But at $2 from a thrift, if a wine glass breaks, I’m not going to shed a tear.

If you really want to get into looking for unexpected treasure, take a little time to find out what factory marks and hallmarks mean so you can identify the really good stuff, especially now when prices for such things are depressed.

Keep your eye out, and there are some pretty sweet deals to be found for things that are normally too dear to justify.