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> Cooking equipment: essentially indestructible Cast Iron skillets transition into teflon pans. The newer pans perform worse, and must be replaced on a shocking

> Cooking equipment: essentially indestructible Cast Iron skillets transition into teflon pans. The newer pans perform worse, and must be replaced on a shockingly regular basis. I fell for this marketing thinking non-stick was the best out of everything always and kept having to buy new pans and trays when the teflon would eventually flake off thinking it was my fault. Stainless steel is fine: works without a lot of food sticking for most things, comes out clean from the dishwasher, doesn't require much care, and there's no easily damaged coating so should last decades. Related but more because of recipes writers repeating tips without considering waste, but I find there's almost zero need for tinfoil, wax paper or plastic wrap either. A reusable silicone mat works if you need a non-stick surface or to cover a dish or bowl, and you can reuse food plastic containers to store things in the fridge. Most e.g. bread recipes insist on putting plastic wrap over the bowl of dough when proving when you can just use a plate, silicone mat or dish towel.

maxerickson 4y ago
The plastic waste thing is kind of silly. People commenting here mostly live near well managed landfills and aren't worrying about burning 10 pounds of oil driving to work. Like fine, feel free to use less plastic, but it really isn't a big portion of most people's resource consumption.
- oblak 4y ago
  - Liquix 4y ago
    Does someone's opinion on recycling differing from yours truly qualify them as a "creepy dude"?
    - oblak 4y ago
      That would depend on their opinion. They way I see it, there are two option: - this person seriously believes the thing they said, which I find outrageous - they lied which is just as bad By all means, feel free celebrate your victory by throwing shit away and drive a 5 ton car. That will show people like me
      - hedora 4y ago
        Option 3: You are obviously wrong. Take a tally of all the pollution you create in a week, and you'll probably find that plastic waste from the kitchen is rounding error. Be sure to include stuff like heating and cooling, transport, clothing, and any other purchaes you make. (99% of the stuff we buy will eventually be garbage, after all.)
        bscphil 4y ago
        "Obviously" goes way too far here, even if you are including greenhouse gasses in the tally, which aren't pollution by traditional standards. My apartment's electricity and the public transportation I use to get around are powered by renewable energy sources that don't create pollution. In the average week (or month) 95% of the plastic waste I create is from inefficiently packaged foods, which definitely counts as "kitchen" plastic waste. Probably 99% of the plastic I've purchased in the last 2 years is for kitchen items. I don't think my situation is particularly unusual.
        hedora 4y ago
        What about clothes, bedding, consumables, etc? Don't forget the stuff thrown away while producing that stuff. Also, you should figure in depreciation on things like the apartment itself, vehicles, and transportation of the stuff you buy. 100% renewable energy is great, if true where you are. Most places still use natural gas peaker plants, at least. Consuming electricity during the day is cleaner than at peak, but even if you're producing your own energy (or your utility is 100% greenhouse free, regionally), the electricity you use could have displaced dirty production elsewhere on the grid. (Also, even solar and wind produce pollution -- they have embodied carbon and finite lifespans). I'm not arguing against reducing household plastic waste, but the idea that you see most of the pollution that's created by stuff you consume is optimistic. Anyway, according to the EPA, US municipal solid waste is 12.2% plastic (excluding construction waste, sewage sludge, etc). The US is likely higher than most places: https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/national-overview-facts-and-figures-materials https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-...
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - epistasis 4y ago
    It's far far creepier to be overly concerned about plastic waste than about the gasoline cars on the road. Plastic waste has almost zero impact, zero, compared to the gasoline, brake dust, and tire microplastics coming off of cars. Where do all the microplastics in bodies of water come from? It's not plastic waste in landfills, it's tires on the road, which wear down and wash into bodies of water. Every single time your drive. Recently it was found that an essential chemical in tires for hardening them breaks down into neurotoxins that are killing massive amounts of salmon in the pacific northwest. Where is the public outcry? Nowhere!! So that is what incredibly creepy: people pretend to care about the environment to the point they make massive judgements over plastic waste, but they refuse to even consider the amount of driving that's forced onto nearly every person in the US, and we don't even consider ways to reduce that environmental impact, or allow people to even choose to live with less impact. Instead we ban the types of city planning that would allow people to go about their daily lives without the climate destroying, COPD causing, microplastic creating form of travel: cars.
    - andrewzah 4y ago
      Who is “we”? It’s not surprising or creepy that people focus on what they actually can control. None of us realistically can change the fact that America is built around roads. Not everyone can work from home. People drive not because they want to, but because they have to. Criticizing that is a highly privileged take.
      - epistasis 4y ago
        "We" is our society and laws and common discussion topics and social mores, etc. Let's keep on using the "creepy" adjective here, because I think I applies especially to this comment, even more than the prior one. Who sets the laws for how buildings are built and whether we have to drive or not? Local communities (at least in the US). So people can get involved, change what is legal and not legal to build, and advocate for it on the local level. That's what I have been doing for the last five or so years. And what I find realt creepy about the experience is how people will go out of their way to criticize others for small, meaningless actions like reducing single waste plastic, but go ballistic at the idea that we should allow some people to live in a way that doesn't force them to drive every single day and for every trip out of the house. > People drive not because they want to, but because they have to. If that is the case, then why don't they make their voices heard? I certainly don't hear anybody voicing that when we do have a chance to allow communities to be built that don't force driving. Instead I head person after person after person demanding that housing and mixed use communities be banned. At one of the meetings I was at, trying to advocate for a mixed use building, some commenter mentioned an aside of having all single use drinking containers have a tax. None, not a single one, of the board members expressed enthusiasm for this mixed use building that, as a single building, would have far bigger impact than banning all single use cups in the city. But boy did the board take up the idea of taxing single use containers, and not two years later we have a $0.25 charge when you get a to go cup at a coffee shop, but we still have a huuuuuuuuuge fight over every single bit of environment saving buildings. > Criticizing that is a highly privileged take. That's utter BS, and a commonly used dodge by people who don't want any change. Of course we can criticize a system, particularly as we change it. Saying that it's "privileged" to point out that people are forced to drive, which is what I said, is utter nonsense. And frankly, extremely creepy. People are really creepy about cars. They will excuse them, apologize for them, ignore all the damage they do, and even criticize people that point out these massive flaws, before people will admit that maybe we should st least let some people live without them.
  - sacrosancty 4y ago
    It truly does less environmental harm than burning the typical amount of fossil fuel driving to work each day that he mentioned. You can quantify it. CO2 emissions from plastic production are comparable to the mass of plastic which is dwarfed by, say, a litre of petrol. Landfills aren't an environmental problem. People have just been somehow conditioned to hate them for no particular reason.
- bayindirh 4y ago
  That's true, however we don't have exact control on every aspect of our lives. I'd love to walk, bike or use mass transportation to go to work, however it's very impractical (~2 hours vs. 20 minutes), but I have more control over consumption of other things in my life. So, I can do my best on areas which I have most control, and do whatever I can on the areas with less control, and if you ask me, it's better than nothing.
- seanwilson 4y ago
  Why create waste if you don't need to for no real benefit especially in cases where it's minimal effort to avoid? I'm not saying this tip alone is going to save the planet, but you could use the same reasoning to say it doesn't matter if you litter. Not creating waste and littering when it can be easily avoided should be the sane default.
Pulcinella 4y ago
What the heck are y’all doing that you are flaking off the non-stick coating? We have a nice set we got for our wedding, and even after using them nearly every day for a decade they look brand new and the coating is still flawless.
- redisman 4y ago
  Maybe it’s the cheaper pans. I’ve had multiple that just start to “dry” and flake eventually
  - Pulcinella 4y ago
    That I can believe. The non-stick pans the grocery store sells are barely thicker than disposable pie tins and can be bent with your own two hands. Wouldn’t surprise me if the coating is poorly applied as well.
- seanwilson 4y ago
  I've had the same with an expensive set as well as cheaper sets. I know to avoid exposing them to very high heat or metal but they end up flaking anyway. At least with materials like stainless steel you'd have to do something extreme to damage them so it's not likely to happen accidentally.
Spoom 4y ago
You can fairly quickly get a temporary non-stick coating on a stainless steel pan by seasoning it as you would a cast iron pan: spread a tiny amount of oil around the pan, heat until just smoking, allow to cool.
- Too 4y ago
  Not just temporary. Steel pans can get fantastic non-stick properties if you season them like a cast iron pan. In fact it's even more important to perform a dedicated seasoning on steel, because they don't absorb the fat as easy as cast iron do during normal cooking. It also disappears after a while so in that sense you could say it's temporary. Once you've done this you should also avoid detergent, dishwasher and acid (tomato sauce). Again - just like a cast iron skillet. Which is a shame because it's easy to believe one of the benefits with a steel pan is that it is convenient to pop into the dishwasher.

maxerickson 4y ago

The plastic waste thing is kind of silly. People commenting here mostly live near well managed landfills and aren't worrying about burning 10 pounds of oil driving to work. Like fine, feel free to use less plastic, but it really isn't a big portion of most people's resource consumption.

oblak 4y ago
- Liquix 4y ago
  Does someone's opinion on recycling differing from yours truly qualify them as a "creepy dude"?
  - oblak 4y ago
    That would depend on their opinion. They way I see it, there are two option: - this person seriously believes the thing they said, which I find outrageous - they lied which is just as bad By all means, feel free celebrate your victory by throwing shit away and drive a 5 ton car. That will show people like me
    - hedora 4y ago
      Option 3: You are obviously wrong. Take a tally of all the pollution you create in a week, and you'll probably find that plastic waste from the kitchen is rounding error. Be sure to include stuff like heating and cooling, transport, clothing, and any other purchaes you make. (99% of the stuff we buy will eventually be garbage, after all.)
      - bscphil 4y ago
        "Obviously" goes way too far here, even if you are including greenhouse gasses in the tally, which aren't pollution by traditional standards. My apartment's electricity and the public transportation I use to get around are powered by renewable energy sources that don't create pollution. In the average week (or month) 95% of the plastic waste I create is from inefficiently packaged foods, which definitely counts as "kitchen" plastic waste. Probably 99% of the plastic I've purchased in the last 2 years is for kitchen items. I don't think my situation is particularly unusual.
        hedora 4y ago
        What about clothes, bedding, consumables, etc? Don't forget the stuff thrown away while producing that stuff. Also, you should figure in depreciation on things like the apartment itself, vehicles, and transportation of the stuff you buy. 100% renewable energy is great, if true where you are. Most places still use natural gas peaker plants, at least. Consuming electricity during the day is cleaner than at peak, but even if you're producing your own energy (or your utility is 100% greenhouse free, regionally), the electricity you use could have displaced dirty production elsewhere on the grid. (Also, even solar and wind produce pollution -- they have embodied carbon and finite lifespans). I'm not arguing against reducing household plastic waste, but the idea that you see most of the pollution that's created by stuff you consume is optimistic. Anyway, according to the EPA, US municipal solid waste is 12.2% plastic (excluding construction waste, sewage sludge, etc). The US is likely higher than most places: https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/national-overview-facts-and-figures-materials https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-...
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- epistasis 4y ago
  It's far far creepier to be overly concerned about plastic waste than about the gasoline cars on the road. Plastic waste has almost zero impact, zero, compared to the gasoline, brake dust, and tire microplastics coming off of cars. Where do all the microplastics in bodies of water come from? It's not plastic waste in landfills, it's tires on the road, which wear down and wash into bodies of water. Every single time your drive. Recently it was found that an essential chemical in tires for hardening them breaks down into neurotoxins that are killing massive amounts of salmon in the pacific northwest. Where is the public outcry? Nowhere!! So that is what incredibly creepy: people pretend to care about the environment to the point they make massive judgements over plastic waste, but they refuse to even consider the amount of driving that's forced onto nearly every person in the US, and we don't even consider ways to reduce that environmental impact, or allow people to even choose to live with less impact. Instead we ban the types of city planning that would allow people to go about their daily lives without the climate destroying, COPD causing, microplastic creating form of travel: cars.
  - andrewzah 4y ago
    Who is “we”? It’s not surprising or creepy that people focus on what they actually can control. None of us realistically can change the fact that America is built around roads. Not everyone can work from home. People drive not because they want to, but because they have to. Criticizing that is a highly privileged take.
    - epistasis 4y ago
      "We" is our society and laws and common discussion topics and social mores, etc. Let's keep on using the "creepy" adjective here, because I think I applies especially to this comment, even more than the prior one. Who sets the laws for how buildings are built and whether we have to drive or not? Local communities (at least in the US). So people can get involved, change what is legal and not legal to build, and advocate for it on the local level. That's what I have been doing for the last five or so years. And what I find realt creepy about the experience is how people will go out of their way to criticize others for small, meaningless actions like reducing single waste plastic, but go ballistic at the idea that we should allow some people to live in a way that doesn't force them to drive every single day and for every trip out of the house. > People drive not because they want to, but because they have to. If that is the case, then why don't they make their voices heard? I certainly don't hear anybody voicing that when we do have a chance to allow communities to be built that don't force driving. Instead I head person after person after person demanding that housing and mixed use communities be banned. At one of the meetings I was at, trying to advocate for a mixed use building, some commenter mentioned an aside of having all single use drinking containers have a tax. None, not a single one, of the board members expressed enthusiasm for this mixed use building that, as a single building, would have far bigger impact than banning all single use cups in the city. But boy did the board take up the idea of taxing single use containers, and not two years later we have a $0.25 charge when you get a to go cup at a coffee shop, but we still have a huuuuuuuuuge fight over every single bit of environment saving buildings. > Criticizing that is a highly privileged take. That's utter BS, and a commonly used dodge by people who don't want any change. Of course we can criticize a system, particularly as we change it. Saying that it's "privileged" to point out that people are forced to drive, which is what I said, is utter nonsense. And frankly, extremely creepy. People are really creepy about cars. They will excuse them, apologize for them, ignore all the damage they do, and even criticize people that point out these massive flaws, before people will admit that maybe we should st least let some people live without them.
- sacrosancty 4y ago
  It truly does less environmental harm than burning the typical amount of fossil fuel driving to work each day that he mentioned. You can quantify it. CO2 emissions from plastic production are comparable to the mass of plastic which is dwarfed by, say, a litre of petrol. Landfills aren't an environmental problem. People have just been somehow conditioned to hate them for no particular reason.
bayindirh 4y ago
That's true, however we don't have exact control on every aspect of our lives. I'd love to walk, bike or use mass transportation to go to work, however it's very impractical (~2 hours vs. 20 minutes), but I have more control over consumption of other things in my life. So, I can do my best on areas which I have most control, and do whatever I can on the areas with less control, and if you ask me, it's better than nothing.
seanwilson 4y ago
Why create waste if you don't need to for no real benefit especially in cases where it's minimal effort to avoid? I'm not saying this tip alone is going to save the planet, but you could use the same reasoning to say it doesn't matter if you litter. Not creating waste and littering when it can be easily avoided should be the sane default.

Pulcinella 4y ago

What the heck are y’all doing that you are flaking off the non-stick coating? We have a nice set we got for our wedding, and even after using them nearly every day for a decade they look brand new and the coating is still flawless.

redisman 4y ago
Maybe it’s the cheaper pans. I’ve had multiple that just start to “dry” and flake eventually
- Pulcinella 4y ago
  That I can believe. The non-stick pans the grocery store sells are barely thicker than disposable pie tins and can be bent with your own two hands. Wouldn’t surprise me if the coating is poorly applied as well.
seanwilson 4y ago
I've had the same with an expensive set as well as cheaper sets. I know to avoid exposing them to very high heat or metal but they end up flaking anyway. At least with materials like stainless steel you'd have to do something extreme to damage them so it's not likely to happen accidentally.

Spoom 4y ago

You can fairly quickly get a temporary non-stick coating on a stainless steel pan by seasoning it as you would a cast iron pan: spread a tiny amount of oil around the pan, heat until just smoking, allow to cool.

Too 4y ago
Not just temporary. Steel pans can get fantastic non-stick properties if you season them like a cast iron pan. In fact it's even more important to perform a dedicated seasoning on steel, because they don't absorb the fat as easy as cast iron do during normal cooking. It also disappears after a while so in that sense you could say it's temporary. Once you've done this you should also avoid detergent, dishwasher and acid (tomato sauce). Again - just like a cast iron skillet. Which is a shame because it's easy to believe one of the benefits with a steel pan is that it is convenient to pop into the dishwasher.