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As I understand it, most (all?) nonstick coatings on pans are chemicals in this general category - some variant of fluorine compounds that hold together well. T
by fencepost 8y ago
As I understand it, most (all?) nonstick coatings on pans are chemicals in this general category - some variant of fluorine compounds that hold together well. The biggest problem particularly with older ones is that they start to get less stable as heat gets higher - like it may if you leave an empty nonstick pan over a burner, where it can give off fumes that are particularly toxic to pet birds.
Avoiding those compounds likely accounts for at least some of the increased trendiness of cast iron in the past decade or two, including the increase in new "artisanal" cast iron makers like Stargazer, Finex, Butter Pat, Smithey, Field Co and probably a few others (for reviews of a bunch of those, check out Kent Rollins on Youtube). There's also quite a bit of information on improving/smoothing less expensive cast iron.
- lkrubner 8y agoAlso, cast iron is known to cure anemia in women, and it has been tested for thousands of years and is well understood. It is not experimental. Also, really, how hard is it to put some oil in a pan and let that coat the pan before you start cooking? My friends complain that their food burns in an iron pan, which I think is a surprising complaint. The solution to burning has been known for centuries: just put some oil or butter in the pan, and use a reasonable flame.
- woolvalley 8y agoIt's about saving time and work. Cast iron takes a lot of work compared to even plain old stainless steel plans in prep and cleaning. They are very heavy to handle and can't use such foods as tomatoes because they are too acidic. An informal survey as to why you would use a cast iron is "it make meat taste better" and it "heats more evenly".
- jacobush 8y agoI used to believe that cast iron were more work, but I moved house, got a (cheap, $20) cast iron pan - and it's less work. I t sticks less than non-stick pans. Very notable when frying eggs. I hadn't have an egg stick yet, while I had it all the time in the non-stick. Also, you can be rough with metal tools without worrying about damaging the non stick coating. And can overheat without damaging the pan. It's also easy to clean, if you get over the impulse to use detergent. Just clean it in hot water and then a towel or paper towel. If one uses detergent, it needs to be oil coated and heated again, which is annoying. I'll never use anything but cast iron again. It is heavy though.
- spurcell93 8y agoI feel like you must cook a very narrow range of food and/or have very little space / money for more pans. Cast iron is lovely and versatile (see my sibling post) but there is a tool for every job and cast iron is not always that tool,
- jacobush 8y agoI have very little space AND when I moved house I got super annoyed over sooo many annoying trinkets. I don’t want more stuff.
- tashoecraft 8y agoSo the whole you can’t use soap on cast iron is incorrect. It used to be, when soap was made wit lye, but normal dish soap is not nerely strong enough to remove the coating on cast iron. I have 5 cast iron pots and pans and use a little soap on all and have no issues with removing coating.
- fencepost 8y agoYou can certainly use a little dish soap, but not with anything abrasive. I used to use a stiff-bristled brush on mine, but these days I'm actually using a little square of stainless steel chainmail intended for cleaning cast iron. There are no sharp edges to dig into the finish, but it's hard enough and flexible enough to get a good scrub going.
- spurcell93 8y agoI will say, the only work my cast iron requires is cooking a really fatty food in it once a month.... my stainless pans require scouring if I do some searing (even with a good deglaze) which is a huge hassle. My cast iron, I just wipe out lightly and never scrub. I have never noticed adverse effects from this and it's well seasoned. I do hear the weight complaint - I'm a big guy so it's not too bad but my girlfriend needs two hands.
- DanFeldman 8y agoSame here - I have a bigger stainless steel skillet that always needs steel wool to get some pesky things out of it after any frying, but my cast iron cleans up much easier. Though, I make liberal use of dish soap and the scouring side of my sponge. Never had a problem with seasoning other than roommates messing it up a bit here and there.
- jiban123 8y agohttps://eurogender.eige.europa.eu/events/liii-tvnfl-super-bowl-2019-new-england-patriots-vs-los-angeles-rams-live-stream https://eurogender.eige.europa.eu/events/liii-tvnfl-super-bo...
- dwighttk 8y agoYou can cook tomatoes in cast iron. I wouldn't spread tomato paste around the pan and leave it in the sink with water in it for a week, but that's no reason to avoid cooking with tomatoes in cast iron.
- BoiledCabbage 8y agoIt's not because it damages the pan, it's not good for you. A significant amount of iron breaks down from the acid and leaches into your food.
- fencepost 8y agoIt's not the iron either - it's because if you cook too much with acidic liquids in cast iron you'll get some of the seasoning coming off and it may turn your food blackish and unappealing. If you do a lot of cooking like that or don't have it properly seasoned you'll eventually have problems with going all the way through the seasoning and then you'll get rust. If you want to use cast iron for soups, stews, braises, chilis, etc. that you're going to be cooking a long time, get an enameled cast iron pan - that'll get you a lot of the heat retention but with a more durable (but not nonstick) finish.
- jdhn 8y agoI looked at some of those brands to see what made them different from Lodge. One had a different handle, while another one had a thicker bottom and thinner sides for better searing, but they're also in the hundreds of dollars. A 12" Lodge skillet is $40, that's at least half the price of the 12" skillets for the other brands. For the price, I don't think that Lodge can be beat.
- briandear 8y agoI’ve been to the Lodge factory in rural South Pittsburg Tennessee and I don’t understand what makes “artisanal” cast iron any different from Lodge. It’s pretty much just a marketing hook to convince hipsters to spend hundreds more. The folks that make Lodge are just as “artisanal” as the fancy-pants brands. Lodge has been doing this for over a hundred years. They were “artisanal” before anyone ever used that work. I agree, Lodge can’t be beat. Their iron isn’t any better or worse than the more expensive brands, they just don’t have some bearded “skillet master” in their marketing department convicting people about how good their products are.
- foobarian 8y agoI got a cheapo Lodge for this reason, but I wonder if the more expensive makes add some postprocessing steps to smooth the casting. I found the rough Lodge finish to be unworkable since food kept sticking, and it was hard to clean. I ended up sanding it down to a glass finish and reseasoning it, and now it works properly.
- nate_meurer 8y agoYes, and anecdotally I can tell you it's quite possible to kill a bird with non-stick cookware even it's not overheated. It's important to note that birds can easily be injured or killed by all kinds of cooking smoke and fumes, regardless of origin, and all cooking smoke is known to be carcinogenic. But normal cooking fumes are nowhere near as dangerous as the shit that comes out of overheated PTFE.
- dukoid 8y agoI switched to ceramic pans because of these concerns. More sticky than teflon but much better than traditional iron or stell pans.
- hammock 8y agoCeramic is actually a marketing gimmick referring not to the material used but rather the process of making it. It is still teflon-coated and just as toxic as "non-stick." Wish I had a source but I'm on mobile.
- my_username_is_ 8y agoSort of. There's ceramic in the coating, but it's a minor component. More specifically, the coating is referred to as sol-gel ceramic. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol%E2%80%93gel_process?wprov=sfla1 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol%E2%80%93gel_process?wpro...
- nate_meurer 8y agoI think you're confusing ceramic coatings with reinforced PTFE coatings, which may sometimes contain ceramic particles. Actual ceramic coatings for cookware contain no PTFE at all. For example, premium PTFE coatings such as GMM's Duramax and Whitford's Eclipse are internally reinforced with hard materials of some sort. However these are not marketed as PTFE-free, because obviously they aren't. On the other hand, a ceramic coating that's advertised as PTFE-free, such as Thermolon (which is used in GreenPan) is completely free of fluorinated chemicals.
- erdewit 8y agoCeramic is no teflon... I accidentally proved this by leaving an empty ceramic pan on the fire. It took take an amazing high temperature with the aluminium underside discolored a bit but otherwise perfectly fine, still use it today.
- feanaro 8y agoCould you please give the source when you're not on mobile?
- batbomb 8y agoDitch the Lodge, don't even think about the artisanal cast iron, and go straight for the DeBuyer Mineral B. It's much cheaper than the crap artisanal things, much more options in pan sizes, and finished better. More generally - if they don't sell it at a restaurant supply store (or a store catering toward the restaurant business), you are going to be overpaying for it. This is true for almost everything you really need in the kitchen.
- nate_meurer 8y agoThey're not the same thing. That De Buyer is thin carbon steel, not cast iron. I have one (an identical Paderno actually) and it's by far my favorite pan for crepes, but it sucks for everything else. It's no good for searing because it lacks the necessary heat capacity, and the thin steel causes hot spots even worse than cast iron. Deeper carbon steel pans are great for stir frying, but I have yet to find another use for very shallow carbon steel skillets. Note that Lodge makes skillets that it calls "carbon steel" which are actually just especially thin cast iron, and I love these. They are thick enough to perform like cast iron, but much lighter. I have 10 and 12 inch skillets (Lodge model numbers CRS10 and CRS12), and they're my go-to skillets for almost everything: pancakes, omelets and fried eggs, sauteing, and shallow frying. The only thing I don't use cast iron for is scrambled eggs. EDIT: Nope, nevermind, I'm wrong. I just checked my pans, and my Lodge thin cast iron skillets are the same thickness as those Mineral B pans -- 2.5mm. My crepe pan is thinner. So you're right, those De Buyer pans probably are excellent replacements for cast iron -- lighter, cheaper, similar performance. EDIT 2: Damn you batbomb, now I have to go shopping for pans. Restaurant supply store you say? Maybe ebay?