I know that vintage Pyrex collections are very special. You don't want to risk ruining one of your most treasured heirloom kitchen items while making a weeknight supper. But rest easy—vintage Pyrex dishes are oven-safe.
Broken or chipped Pyrex should be disposed of carefully in the waste bin.
The best way is to look at the bottom of the product. My vintage Pyrex, which is at least 40 years old, and definitely boro-silicate, reads ``Not For Lab Or Stovetop Use - Corning NY - USA - 516 - PYREX.'' Newer products made of soda-lime glass do not read Corning NY, nor are they made by Corning.
Unfortunately, if your Pyrex bakeware and containers are no longer usable, they'll need to be disposed of in your landfill bin.
Can Pyrex Go In the Oven? Yes, Pyrex can go in the oven. You can use Pyrex glass cookware to cook, bake, warm or reheat food in pre-heated conventional and convection ovens.
The brand switched its formula in the 1950s to the soda lime glass, but recently started reintroducing borosilicate glass. Although both glasses are heat-resistant, borosilicate glass does better with extreme temperatures, making the vintage Pyrex pieces highly coveted by collectors.
If it's all caps “PYREX,” it's vintage, made of borosilicate. If it's lower case “pyrex,” it's new, and it's soda lime. (In Europe, Pyrex is still made of borosilicate. So these recommendations only apply to Pyrex in the United States.)
As long as you follow the same guidelines above, vintage Pyrex is A-OK to go in the oven and can be used in oven temperatures up to 425ºF (and skip the broiler). There is one caveat to using your vintage Pyrex, though: Do not use any vintage dishes that are chipped or cracked—in the oven or otherwise.
Some of the most elusive Pyrex pieces go for hundreds of dollars, and there are even anecdotes of collectors bidding thousands for rare pieces. A rare Lucky in Love Pyrex casserole dish from 1959—what might have been only a test pattern, made of shamrocks and hearts—sold for $5,994 in a 2017 Goodwill auction.
The price of vintage Pyrex often depends on the object's desirability and condition. While a set of old custard cups may fail to sell for 50 cents, a four-color, four-piece mixing bowl set can cost from $45 to $65.
The next time you go to cook dinner in a Pyrex pan, take a look at the labeling. Cookware with lowercase logos are usually made of soda-lime glass and should not be heated up in the oven or microwave to minimize risk of them breaking.
It is a tempered borosilicate glass, of superior quality and high resistance to thermal and mechanical shock. It is perfectly suited to extreme temperatures, from -40° to 300°, and has great resistance to thermal shock of up to 220°. All Pyrex® glass products are safe to use in the oven, freezer and vice versa.
Some older milk glass contains quantities of lead and will ring like a bell when tapped, says Frank Chiarenza, a collector, former president of the National Milk Glass Collectors Society, and the co-author of The Milk Glass Book, who was interviewed for Martha Stewart Living magazine before his death in 2018.
Compared to modern kitchen items, vintage Pyrex — which is heavy, increasingly expensive and not dishwasher safe — doesn't seem immediately practical. Yet people remain obsessed with the old Pyrex — not just to look at but to actually use.
While browning or rusting on a once-shiny, stainless-steel pan can be removed with a bit of elbow grease—and a lot of help from a cleaning product like Bar Keeper's Friend—other issues like warping or scratched coating on a nonstick pan can be a sign that the performance of your pan is no longer top notch.
Many modern Pyrex items will denote whether they are safe for the microwave on the bottom of the item. But we have used vintage Pyrex in the microwave many times (I can't count the number of times I've microwaved a Diagonal Handle Pyrex cup filled with coffee).
The bowls in the Pyrex Atomic Eyes Chip and Dip, sans bracket. Image courtesy of JennifersVintageFind. A highly-coveted pattern, the Atomic Eyes Chip and Dip is the holy grail for some Pyrex collectors. Released in the 1950s, some of the bowls feature a Pyrex stamp while others don't.
As Cruz explains, the majority of Pyrex collectors do it for the nostalgia: They grew up with Pyrex pieces and appreciate the reminder of home. Others love the retro style. But no matter what draws you to old-school Pyrex, there's one hard-to-beat benefit to the game: These pieces are forever useful.
Pyrex dishes also hide a little secret code: Many contain a three- or four-digit number that corresponds to a specific dish. A series of Mixing Bowls will feature 401 (1.5 pint), 402 (1.5 quart), 403 (2.5 quart), 404 (4 quart). The iconic two-quart green-and-white casserole dish is a 232.
Vintage CorningWare is still safe to use as long as it's not cracked or chipped.
Liquid dish soap, Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, Baking Soda, Bar Keeper's Friend, Corningware Cleaner, Oven Cleaner, Dawn Powder Dissolver, Goo-gone, and Scotch-brite pads. I think most Pyrex collectors will agree that aside from dish soap, Mr. Clean Magic Eraser is one of the most useful cleaners for Pyrex!
Vintage Pyrex has fans for practical reasons: It's tougher than modern Pyrex. All Pyrex cookware, old and new, is made from tempered glass, which stands up well to high and low temperatures. You can bake casseroles in the oven or pop a meal in the freezer.
In 1915, the company launched its first Pyrex line (Pyrex combined "pie" and "Nonex") with 12 pieces, including pie plates and a loaf pan. The 8-ounce liquid measuring cup came out 10 years later; early versions had a closed, D-shaped handle and tick marks made out of molded glass.
If it's all caps Pyrex, it's vintage, made of borosilicate. If it's lowercase Pyrex, it's new. And it's soda lime.
If the logo is in upper case lettering, PYREX, it's most likely made of borosilicate, and thus safer. The lowercase lettering is most likely made of soda-lime glass, so take extra care after any high-heat cooking.