Mosquito Supper Club Shrimp Jambalaya, courtesy of Chef Melissa Martin. Recipe can be found in her cookbook, Mosquito Supper Club: Cajun Recipes From a Disappearing Bayou. Copyright © 2020. Photograph by Denny Culbert.

There are certain types of cookware that inspire an almost religious devotion among people for whom the kitchen is a sacred space. There are the believers in the magic of copper pots and pans. There are those who swear up and down by ceramic cooking vessels. There are the collectors of cast-iron cookware. And then there are perhaps the most devoted of all: the disciples of Magnalite® professional cookware.

The Magnalite History

Magnalite fandom has been an American tradition for more than 85 years. The Wagner Manufacturing Company of Sidney, Ohio, poured the first cast for WagnerWare Magnalite (Magnalite, for short) in 1934. Made of a unique, durable aluminum and magnesium alloy, these shiny silver kitchen tools have a denser base and thinner sides than most of their cookware counterparts. This allows the pots and pans to first heat more evenly, then distribute that heat faster during the cooking process. (“A cast as thick as two silver dollars!” claims an original Magnalite instruction manual.)

Magnalite lids also sport a vapor-tight seal, ensuring that the utmost amount of moisture is retained. Plus, Magnalite cookware can go from stovetop to oven – and refrigerator to stovetop – without missing a beat. Perhaps the most iconic of all the Magnalite pieces is the oval-shaped roaster. A pot that resembles a very stout rocket ship or chunky UFO is the preferred gumbo-making vessel for many a grand-mère (that’s grandma, Cajun style) across South Louisiana.

A Beloved Connection to South Louisiana

Home cooks across the South – and in particular, Louisiana’s Cajun country – have a soft spot for Magnalite. Sets of the cookware are treasured family heirlooms passed down through generations. Chatty praise of Magnalite can be found everywhere in the South Louisiana online orbit. From local Facebook trading groups in Lafayette to Louisiana State University football message boards. One poster recently gushed, “What a great cooking utensil! By far the best overall pots ever!”

In an interview with Serious Eats about the “everyday sacred” ritual of making gumbo, Cajun cook and photographer Pableaux Johnson describes the comforting scene in his kitchen – one that is typical across Louisiana – featuring Pableaux’s own Turkey Bone Gumbo recipe simmering on the stove in “the oversize Magnalite roaster that’s gingerly straddling two pulsing blue gas jets.”

Photo by Chris Granger. Pableaux Johnson of New Orleans makes gumbo for Serious Eats.

Professional chefs in Louisiana swear by the cookware, particularly a line of sturdy, professional-grade Magnalite introduced in the 1970s. Cajun Chef John Folse’s cookbooks and recipes mention it repeatedly by name. A Magnalite pot used by legendary New Orleans chef Leah Chase is now on permanent display at the National Museum of African American Heritage and Culture in Washington, D.C.

And Brenda Placide – the beloved chef-owner of Brenda’s Diner in New Iberia, Louisiana – in an interview with The New Iberian, recalls when actor Tommy Lee Jones asked her to come cook for him in Dallas. “I told him ‘Tommy Lee, I’d need to cook with my Magnalite pot, but I’m not driving and it is too heavy to carry on the plane. They won’t let me on with all my pots.’ He told he was going to send his chauffeur to pick me up.” Now that’s devotion to Magnalite.

A Cajun Heirloom in Uptown New Orleans

This devotion is endearingly evident in the kitchen of New Orleans Chef Melissa Martin, a native of Terrebonne Parish who regularly uses her inherited and beloved Magnalite soup pot. In her cookbook, Mosquito Supper Club: Cajun Recipes From a Disappearing Bayou, she explains that she kept this pot sitting on her stove for years. “As a bit of comfort and a beautiful reminder of so many delicious meals” – and, we might add, many more meals to come.

She shares the Cajun culinary traditions she learned from the women of her family at her restaurant. The Mosquito Supper Club is where she serves up platters of fresh Cajun food family-style to small groups of diners in a repurposed historic home in Uptown New Orleans. She uses her Magnalite pot to make her Monday’s Red Beans and Mosquito Supper Club White Beans recipes. Both of which can be found in her cookbook.

Chef Melissa’s Magnalite soup pot, inherited from her grandmother. Excerpted from Mosquito Supper Club by Melissa Martin (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2020. Photograph by Denny Culbert.

Cooking Gumbo and Beyond

Although a big gumbo might be the first dish you think of when someone whips out a Magnalite roaster, these kitchen tools can cook just about anything. Pinto beans with ham hock, catfish sauce piquante, shrimp jambalaya and red beans and rice, just to name a few. Magnalite is well known for its ability to both sear meat and help ingredients and flavors naturally mingle. This makes it a natural for dishes like white beans with sausage, smothered pork chops and a big pot of jambalaya. Some would argue that there are few things that a Magnalite vessel can’t do.

How to Clean Magnalite Pots

Like any beloved kitchen tool, Magnalite also has a legendary list of “best practices” to keep the pots in tip-top, shiny shape. One Magnalite owner’s grandmother swore by cleaning the pots first with a healthy rinse of Coca-Cola, then scrubbing with lemons. Another Magnalite fan agrees that the Coke-and-lemon process works, but also to add in an overnight soak in water to keep the cookware looking like new.

An instructional YouTube video for how to properly “season” a Magnalite pot uses tissue paper to spread oil around as a conditioner. Using paper towels can leave small fibers behind. “I love my Magnalite pot, and I can’t wait to get a second,” the YouTube instructor professes. The attention to detail when caring for Magnalite is almost reverent.

Today, new Wagner Magnalite cookware is no longer produced or manufactured in the United States. If you weren’t lucky enough to inherit a set of Magnalite tools, you can join the many Magnalite purists who seek out the original (and, in their minds, better) versions at flea markets, garage sales and trade shows. Etsy and eBay also offer a treasure trove of old-school Magnalite items for sale. Prices ranging somewhere between $60 and $150 depending on the item.

Mcware vs Magnalite

There’s also a Mamou, Louisiana-based company, McWare, which produces cooking vessels that are decidedly similar to Magnalite. Same aluminum build, comparable oval roaster shape, for a similar price point. Are they all worth it? That’s for each individual cook to decide. One thing is for sure: a perfect pot of red beans is priceless.