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Slightly off topic but I threw out all my pots and pans with non stick surfaces. Nothing will convince me it’s safe to cook food to high temperature on whateve

Slightly off topic but I threw out all my pots and pans with non stick surfaces. Nothing will convince me it’s safe to cook food to high temperature on whatever that chemical coating is. And after a while you notice the surface is wearing away…. where is it going? Into you and your family. All my pots and pans are stainless steel.

jb1991 3y ago
Cast iron is also a good material and great for cooking. A nice complement to your steel collection.
- dcormier 3y ago
  Carbon steel is nice, too. The pans made from it are often lighter than cast iron, which is a nice perk.
- cubefox 3y ago
  What's the difference compared to steel?
  - mkonecny 3y ago
    It's a bit of a misnomer. Steel is literally Iron + Carbon. So the carbon in carbon steel is redundant
  - jb1991 3y ago
    The main reason I like it is beacause after it is "seasoned", or after some regular use, it has a lot of the qualities of non-stick yet has none of the chemical coating.
    - DannyBee 3y ago
      Look, i know it's a very popular thing to do, but A. it's a layer of burned, polymerized cooking oil. It is in fact a plastic. It is not particularly better for you. It's only non-stick in a weird sense that anything else that hasn't been cleaned is non-stick. B. it does not really prevent rust - if it did, we would use this instead of rust protectants :) C. Cast iron, unlike steel, generates mostly dust when it abrades. It is often machined dry with vacuum because it otherwise clogs up coolant systems (it makes a sort of mud). The dust is very bad for you. So everytime you scrape through that coating and abrade it, or microabrade it, you are probably getting cast iron dust in the air/lungs. I'm sure this will end up studied post PFAS and will be discovered to have been a similarly bad idea. Use steel - it "seasons" just fine (it turns out burned cooking oil will happily stick to lots of things), and doesn't have this issue.
      - momdad420 3y ago
        [dead]
      - jmilloy 3y ago
        Hmmm. I'd like to reconsider my cast iron pans if that's necessary. But first, I don't abrade them. Second, they don't seem to be rusting. And third, if you're going to season your carbon steel, then it seems like it should be fine to season your cast iron, too. Do I don't really understand what you're getting at.
        pengaru 3y ago
        You don't want to breathe a bunch of iron/rust dust, but that doesn't happen with iron cookware since it's never a dry-abrading situation. I once rented an old house with some old iron pipes... While it was a problem for doing laundry without turning clothes orange, when I investigated the health risks it wasn't a problem unless you consumed huge enough amounts to get iron poisoning. Iron is an essential nutrient after all...
mark_l_watson 3y ago
I 100% agree about cooking with non-stick pans at high heat. Several years ago I switched to a type of non-stick pan that is supposed to be safer and I stopped frying foods [1] and instead simmer in vegetable broth. I take a regular stir-fry Asian, Japanese, Korean, etc. recipe and using the same ingredients but no oil, simmer everything in veggie broth and the results are delicious. I add a tablespoon of cold quality olive oil to the food a minute after I turn off the heat. [1] my wife likes fried food and she uses an iron frying pan.
wheels 3y ago
Most folks that cook a lot don't use non-stick pans much anyway because they just don't last very long. I keep a couple around for eggs and pancakes, but that's it. The usual recommendation for skillets is carbon-steel and cast iron because the seasoning does provide some non-stick properties. I have the full gamut with carbon steel, cast iron, non-stick and stainless steel, and find myself mostly leaning on the carbon steel. (I don't have any other materials since I cook on induction.) But here's a catch: that seasoning? Basically a plastic. It's polymerized cooking oil. You can decide if you care. But you'll also polymerize oil when cooking on stainless. Basically: if you want to go ultra-paranoid, don't fry things.
- rcme 3y ago
  It’s pretty easy to make a stainless steel pan non-stick. I cook eggs and pancakes all the time without any sticking. The trick is you have to let the pan come all the way up to your desired cooking temperature. When the pan is hot enough, water vaporizes instantly creating a gas buffer between your food at the pan, aka the Leidenfrost effect. You can tell if the pan is hot enough by splashing a little water on it. A pan hot enough to cook on without food sticking will have the water form round beads of water that slide around the pan rather than splashing or boiling. While there is definitely a minimum cooking temperature this works on, you don’t necessarily need to cook at a higher temperature. You just need to let the pan preheat at your desired cooking temperature for longer.
- helpfulmandrill 3y ago
  I tried carbon steel but I couldn't get the seasoning right, and it flash rusted every time I washed it. Also, to someone used to non-stick or stainless steel, it often looks kind of dirty - its difficult to distinguish between "good but unattractive seasoning" and "you didn't wash your pan well enough".
  - wheels 3y ago
    Weird. I've never had carbon steel rust at all. I suspect you're cleaning it too intensely in an attempt to get what you perceive as dirtiness out. The checkered seasoning is kind of a badge of honor for cooking nerds. Here's what mine look like: https://imgur.com/a/IdtnjLL https://imgur.com/a/IdtnjLL
themulticaster 3y ago
As far as I know, non stick surfaces are mostly (always?) made out of PTFE (brand name Teflon), which is a little unusual in that it starts releasing toxic gases when it's heated way before it shows any signs of structural damage or deformation. This gets dangerous to humans from about 240C, but even at 220C PTFE will release trace amounts that can be toxic to birds. With this in mind, I'm baffled about how many products with non-stick surfaces are marketed as safe up to 240C, considering that household ovens are often bad at controlling temperatures and can swing 20-30C above and below the set temperature.
Grimburger 3y ago
I'm the same, find the prevalence of non-stick bizarre, they still need to be washed and are basically degrading the moment you use high heat. You can't use metal or do stirfrys making them half as useful. Would also include plastic utensils in that. So many people I know have half melted plastic spatulas etc. Wooden and metal utensils work fine and barely cost any more. I have a nice old teak ladle that's lasted me for a decade while friends are throwing out their bubbled horror show plastic after 12 months.
dxuh 3y ago
I mainly used stainless steel myself, but I have been losing weight in the last year and it's just too easy to cook with minimal (or no) oil in non-stick pans. Oil easily adds a lot of calories to everything.

jb1991 3y ago

Cast iron is also a good material and great for cooking. A nice complement to your steel collection.

dcormier 3y ago
Carbon steel is nice, too. The pans made from it are often lighter than cast iron, which is a nice perk.
cubefox 3y ago
What's the difference compared to steel?
- mkonecny 3y ago
  It's a bit of a misnomer. Steel is literally Iron + Carbon. So the carbon in carbon steel is redundant
- jb1991 3y ago
  The main reason I like it is beacause after it is "seasoned", or after some regular use, it has a lot of the qualities of non-stick yet has none of the chemical coating.
  - DannyBee 3y ago
    Look, i know it's a very popular thing to do, but A. it's a layer of burned, polymerized cooking oil. It is in fact a plastic. It is not particularly better for you. It's only non-stick in a weird sense that anything else that hasn't been cleaned is non-stick. B. it does not really prevent rust - if it did, we would use this instead of rust protectants :) C. Cast iron, unlike steel, generates mostly dust when it abrades. It is often machined dry with vacuum because it otherwise clogs up coolant systems (it makes a sort of mud). The dust is very bad for you. So everytime you scrape through that coating and abrade it, or microabrade it, you are probably getting cast iron dust in the air/lungs. I'm sure this will end up studied post PFAS and will be discovered to have been a similarly bad idea. Use steel - it "seasons" just fine (it turns out burned cooking oil will happily stick to lots of things), and doesn't have this issue.
    - momdad420 3y ago
      [dead]
    - jmilloy 3y ago
      Hmmm. I'd like to reconsider my cast iron pans if that's necessary. But first, I don't abrade them. Second, they don't seem to be rusting. And third, if you're going to season your carbon steel, then it seems like it should be fine to season your cast iron, too. Do I don't really understand what you're getting at.
      - pengaru 3y ago
        You don't want to breathe a bunch of iron/rust dust, but that doesn't happen with iron cookware since it's never a dry-abrading situation. I once rented an old house with some old iron pipes... While it was a problem for doing laundry without turning clothes orange, when I investigated the health risks it wasn't a problem unless you consumed huge enough amounts to get iron poisoning. Iron is an essential nutrient after all...

mark_l_watson 3y ago

I 100% agree about cooking with non-stick pans at high heat. Several years ago I switched to a type of non-stick pan that is supposed to be safer and I stopped frying foods [1] and instead simmer in vegetable broth. I take a regular stir-fry Asian, Japanese, Korean, etc. recipe and using the same ingredients but no oil, simmer everything in veggie broth and the results are delicious. I add a tablespoon of cold quality olive oil to the food a minute after I turn off the heat. [1] my wife likes fried food and she uses an iron frying pan.

wheels 3y ago

Most folks that cook a lot don't use non-stick pans much anyway because they just don't last very long. I keep a couple around for eggs and pancakes, but that's it. The usual recommendation for skillets is carbon-steel and cast iron because the seasoning does provide some non-stick properties. I have the full gamut with carbon steel, cast iron, non-stick and stainless steel, and find myself mostly leaning on the carbon steel. (I don't have any other materials since I cook on induction.) But here's a catch: that seasoning? Basically a plastic. It's polymerized cooking oil. You can decide if you care. But you'll also polymerize oil when cooking on stainless. Basically: if you want to go ultra-paranoid, don't fry things.

rcme 3y ago
It’s pretty easy to make a stainless steel pan non-stick. I cook eggs and pancakes all the time without any sticking. The trick is you have to let the pan come all the way up to your desired cooking temperature. When the pan is hot enough, water vaporizes instantly creating a gas buffer between your food at the pan, aka the Leidenfrost effect. You can tell if the pan is hot enough by splashing a little water on it. A pan hot enough to cook on without food sticking will have the water form round beads of water that slide around the pan rather than splashing or boiling. While there is definitely a minimum cooking temperature this works on, you don’t necessarily need to cook at a higher temperature. You just need to let the pan preheat at your desired cooking temperature for longer.
helpfulmandrill 3y ago
I tried carbon steel but I couldn't get the seasoning right, and it flash rusted every time I washed it. Also, to someone used to non-stick or stainless steel, it often looks kind of dirty - its difficult to distinguish between "good but unattractive seasoning" and "you didn't wash your pan well enough".
- wheels 3y ago
  Weird. I've never had carbon steel rust at all. I suspect you're cleaning it too intensely in an attempt to get what you perceive as dirtiness out. The checkered seasoning is kind of a badge of honor for cooking nerds. Here's what mine look like: https://imgur.com/a/IdtnjLL https://imgur.com/a/IdtnjLL

themulticaster 3y ago

As far as I know, non stick surfaces are mostly (always?) made out of PTFE (brand name Teflon), which is a little unusual in that it starts releasing toxic gases when it's heated way before it shows any signs of structural damage or deformation. This gets dangerous to humans from about 240C, but even at 220C PTFE will release trace amounts that can be toxic to birds. With this in mind, I'm baffled about how many products with non-stick surfaces are marketed as safe up to 240C, considering that household ovens are often bad at controlling temperatures and can swing 20-30C above and below the set temperature.

Grimburger 3y ago

I'm the same, find the prevalence of non-stick bizarre, they still need to be washed and are basically degrading the moment you use high heat. You can't use metal or do stirfrys making them half as useful. Would also include plastic utensils in that. So many people I know have half melted plastic spatulas etc. Wooden and metal utensils work fine and barely cost any more. I have a nice old teak ladle that's lasted me for a decade while friends are throwing out their bubbled horror show plastic after 12 months.

dxuh 3y ago

I mainly used stainless steel myself, but I have been losing weight in the last year and it's just too easy to cook with minimal (or no) oil in non-stick pans. Oil easily adds a lot of calories to everything.