The NESCO® Roaster first made it's debut in the early 1930's, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, manufactured by the National Enameling and Stamping Company (NESCO®). They were a longtime manufacturer of pots and pans, buckets, and other cooking and farm accessories in the growing agricultural state. It was about that time that a couple of their engineers were experimenting with electricity, as it was now available in Milwaukee. They took some wire, wrapped it around one of their double-boilers, plugged it in, and it got hot. An idea was born.

Quickly the new "portable oven" was sold throughout the Milwaukee area, and the firm was looking for a way to expand their new market. In the first ever joint marketing effort between an appliance manufacturer and a utility company, NESCO® and the local utility companies went from farm to farm throughout Wisconsin selling the "new electric service" along with a NESCO® Roaster Oven and some light bulbs to the rural families, who had been cooking on wood stoves.

As time went on, the company was split up, and products went different ways. The line of now famous NESCO® Roasters was sold to several firms, including the Hoover Vacuum cleaner people, and was eventually purchased in 1981 by The Metal Ware Corporation, of Two Rivers, Wisconsin, where they "brought it back home", redesigned several of the units with new styling, added additional models to the line, and added various accessories and options, including the patented Roast-Air Convection Oven® and the Nescote® non-stick interior. NESCO® Roasters are now sold throughout the United States and Canada, and marketing opportunities exist in other foreign countries (contact the company for details).

The Metal Ware Corporation also has a long standing tradition of manufacturing quality electric cooking appliances that stretches back to 1920. The firm was founded by the founder of nearby Mirro Aluminum, the largest manufacturer of aluminum cookware in the world. Metal Ware was purchased in 1931 by the family of the current owners, and several second- and third-generation family members oversee today's manufacturing operations in three modern plants along Lake Michigan in Wisconsin.

Metal Ware also manufactures other cooking appliances under the NESCO® name and the complete line of Open Country Camp Cookware®. Always looking for new products and markets, The Metal Ware Corporation acquired the assets of American Harvest in Chaska, MN early in 1997, and proudly manufactures and markets their products under the NESCO/American Harvest® brand name.