Dining, Kitchen & Cooking
Buy and sell pots, pans and dinner sets in Guatemala.
Altitude decides a lot in a Guatemalan kitchen. Black beans that soften in about an hour and a quarter at sea level can take more than four hours in an open pot at 2,250 metres, which is why so many highland homes cook them in a pressure cooker. New or pre-owned, a set of frying pans can share the shelf with the clay comal that still goes over the fire in plenty of homes. Most of it outlives its first kitchen by years, as long as you know which materials last and which ones wear out.
From the pressure cooker on the stove to the tablecloth:
the stove end of the kitchen is pots and pans, home of the pressure cooker, the everyday frying pan and the big tamale steamer that comes out at Christmas. Moulds and trays for the oven are in baking. Everyday plates and cups belong in dinnerware, while the platters and bowls that only appear when guests come are serveware. Juice pitchers, water bottles and glasses go in drinkware and bar. Containers that keep flour and coffee away from damp and ants are in kitchen storage, and tablecloths, napkins and woven runners in kitchen and table linens.
Pressure cookers and pots for gas burners and wood fires:
above the coast, a pressure cooker is the pot that earns its keep. It reaches the heat that an open pot loses to altitude, so beans and a tough free-range hen for soup cook in a fraction of the time and on a fraction of the gas. A stovetop one runs from about Q350 in aluminium to around Q1,000 in stainless steel. The aluminium ones are lighter and heat fast; stainless is heavier, keeps its looks and, with a magnetic base, works on an induction hob, which aluminium never does. What you cook on matters as much. Most city kitchens run on a propane stove, where almost any pan works. On a wood-burning flat-top stove, common across the countryside, heavy pots, cast iron and clay do well, while thin non-stick pans and glass lids suffer. If your apartment has an electric or induction hob, take a magnet to any pot you are about to buy: if it does not stick to the base, it will not work there.
Stainless steel, non-stick and clay comals bought second-hand:
some materials last for decades and some wear out in a few years, and the used price should follow. Stainless steel and cast iron are close to indestructible; surface rust on a cast-iron pan cleans off and it can be seasoned again. Non-stick coatings are the opposite. Scratches, bare patches or flaking mean the pan is finished, so buy used non-stick only when it looks nearly new. A used pressure cooker is worth what its lid is worth. Check that the lid locks smoothly, the valve is clean and moves freely, and the rubber gasket is soft rather than cracked or stretched, and ask whether spare gaskets for that brand are still easy to find. Without them the pot is only an ordinary pot. A soot-black bottom just means it cooked over wood. With clay, from the comals and cooking pots of Santa Apolonia or San Luis Jilotepeque, tap the piece with a knuckle: a clear ring means sound, a dull note means a hidden crack. Glazed pieces sold as decoration are not always made for food, so ask before you cook in one. On a dinner set, count the pieces and run a finger round every rim for chips.
A dinner set, a tamale steamer or a drawer of pans in your listing:
give the count and say what is missing, because a twelve-place set with nine dinner plates is a different offer. State the material, the capacity in litres or the diameter, and which stove it was used on. For a pressure cooker, say when the gasket was last changed and whether a spare valve comes with it. Photograph non-stick surfaces in daylight, the base of each pot and the maker’s mark under a plate. If you are moving house, a whole kitchen sold as one lot goes faster than ten separate listings. And keep a burner free: a cook driving down from Tecpán for a pressure cooker will want to see it come up to pressure with water on your stove before paying.