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Carbon steel might not be as bad as stainless--it doesn't have the nickel and chrome I assume like stainless. I'd worry with anodized aluminum that the anodiza

Carbon steel might not be as bad as stainless--it doesn't have the nickel and chrome I assume like stainless. I'd worry with anodized aluminum that the anodization can flake off with sharp utensils. I baby my aluminum cookware and it still gets some scratches. There's some borosilicate glass cookware too, but IIRC it went out of fashion and can be hard to find in typical cookware forms like wide pans. It had some problems with thermal shocks and shattering I believe too.

hedora 5y ago
It was popular in drug labs, so they replaced the consumer stuff with something that violently explodes if used for chemistry. Of course, people that were using it to, you know, cook food, or in research labs ended up in some pretty dangerous situations too. Many underfunded grad students were maimed. (Really.)
- Gigachad 5y ago
  I find it hard to believe they did this to stop people making drugs rather than because it was cheaper and good enough for most.
  - mardifoufs 5y ago
    I managed to find some more details on that story and it seems like they got the cause and effect reversed >When World Kitchen took over the Pyrex brand, it started making more products out of prestressed soda-lime glass instead of borosilicate. With pre-stressed, or tempered, glass, the surface is under compression from forces inside the glass. It is stronger than borosilicate glass, but when it’s heated, it still expands as much as ordinary glass does. It doesn’t shatter immediately, because the expansion first acts only to release some of the built-in stress. But only up to a point. >One unfortunate use of Pyrex is cooking crack cocaine, which involves a container of water undergoing a rapid temperature change when the drug is converted from powder form. That process creates more stress than soda-lime glass can withstand, so an entire underground industry was forced to switch from measuring cups purchased at Walmart to test tubes and beakers stolen from labs. https://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-03/gray-matter-cant-take-heat/ https://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-03/gray-matter-c... So it was very popular with drug labs, the recipe changed because new owners, so yes many drug lab chemists probably got hurt and they had to switch over from common Pyrex cookware to actual lab grade stuff. Makes a lot more sense, because I don't think even the DEA would try to restrict glassware. Maybe one day though!
ummonk 5y ago
Carbon steel is the same as cast iron, just with a lower carbon content. Both are only going to leach carbon and iron directly. Arguably though, the seasoning itself is probably some kind of polymerized hydrocarbon, and so you might leach polymer into your food when cooking on a well-seasoned cookware.

hedora 5y ago

It was popular in drug labs, so they replaced the consumer stuff with something that violently explodes if used for chemistry. Of course, people that were using it to, you know, cook food, or in research labs ended up in some pretty dangerous situations too. Many underfunded grad students were maimed. (Really.)

Gigachad 5y ago
I find it hard to believe they did this to stop people making drugs rather than because it was cheaper and good enough for most.
- mardifoufs 5y ago
  I managed to find some more details on that story and it seems like they got the cause and effect reversed >When World Kitchen took over the Pyrex brand, it started making more products out of prestressed soda-lime glass instead of borosilicate. With pre-stressed, or tempered, glass, the surface is under compression from forces inside the glass. It is stronger than borosilicate glass, but when it’s heated, it still expands as much as ordinary glass does. It doesn’t shatter immediately, because the expansion first acts only to release some of the built-in stress. But only up to a point. >One unfortunate use of Pyrex is cooking crack cocaine, which involves a container of water undergoing a rapid temperature change when the drug is converted from powder form. That process creates more stress than soda-lime glass can withstand, so an entire underground industry was forced to switch from measuring cups purchased at Walmart to test tubes and beakers stolen from labs. https://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-03/gray-matter-cant-take-heat/ https://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-03/gray-matter-c... So it was very popular with drug labs, the recipe changed because new owners, so yes many drug lab chemists probably got hurt and they had to switch over from common Pyrex cookware to actual lab grade stuff. Makes a lot more sense, because I don't think even the DEA would try to restrict glassware. Maybe one day though!

ummonk 5y ago

Carbon steel is the same as cast iron, just with a lower carbon content. Both are only going to leach carbon and iron directly. Arguably though, the seasoning itself is probably some kind of polymerized hydrocarbon, and so you might leach polymer into your food when cooking on a well-seasoned cookware.