Last week when my sister was thrifting without me she found this fun rack with six small covered ramekins. They were white and she knows my penchant for small white dishes especially and white dishes in general. So she grabbed it up and I set about researching it as to its use.
It has a chrome rack with a folding handle. The ramekins hold 1/4 cup. The rack holds them up off the table about 1/4 to 3/8 inches. The covers rest on the lip but do not fasten. Both the ramekins and the cute covers have raised fluting. Were they used for cooking something? I tried to think of what I could cook in them that a quarter cup serving would be the right amount for. I had recently been making pot de cremes but it seemed small for that. Was the rack with the handle for lifting the collection out of a water bath? I had heard about but never cooked coddled eggs. A quick google search for egg coddlers showed a similarly sized container but one with a screwed on metal lid. None with a rack and none that matched my little cuties.
It kind of reminded me of the marsala dabba that I found a few weeks ago.
When the marsala dabba showed up at Goodwill it was something that I had not seen before but it had markings on the side so I was able to google it. It holds Indian spices. My new ramekins were not marked in any fashion. I googled ceramic spice containers and found many sets of little dishes, many with covers and some with covers with a notched out area that held a tiny spoon. Mine did not come with notches or tiny spoons. Many of them were pairs or three matching pots on a rack or wood tray. Some were called spice jars, some condiment jars. There were none that are exactly like mine.
I may never know what their intended purpose was or how they were marketed and sold but I might give coddled eggs a try. I am not into exotic spices yet and if I were I have that dabba to hold them. As often happens I fully expect that when I quit looking for them I will discover their purpose. Until then they will dress up my collection.
Joining Tablescape Thursday at Between Naps on the Porch
here.
You made me curious, so I did some googling. I found nothing of value except I did run across some vintage glass cups on a similar wire rack. They were pudding/ custard cups that were kept in water as you said...but 1/4 cup is small....
ReplyDeleteThanks Kim, I thought that the internet had everything and I am usually fairly successful but not this time. There is a lot of interesting stuff that you bump into when you are looking for something else.
DeleteI think it is a condiment server
ReplyDelete