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Replace your plastic utensils and delicate nonstick cookware with metal spatulas, wooden spoons and cast iron pans. Problem solved!
by jpm_sd 2y ago
Replace your plastic utensils and delicate nonstick cookware with metal spatulas, wooden spoons and cast iron pans. Problem solved!
- nemo44x 2y agoYou can't, or rather shouldn't generally, cook acidic foods in cast iron pans. Plus cast iron is really poor to use for many types of cooking since they don't react to changes in heat. Saying that it's good to have one around for occasional things. I like enameled cast iron dutch ovens, etc.
- barbazoo 2y agoWe use our cast iron pans for close to 100% of our ("frying pan") cooking, I'd say it works great.
- nemo44x 2y agoIt’s great if you’re not precise and just want big sears or w/e. That’s fine for certain things. And anything acidic leeches so it tastes metallic. I think once you learn to cook the limits of cast iron become clear. Great for certain things but impossible for many others. Compare to say a thick copper sauté pan and it’s a world of difference in temperature control. The pan changes temp as soon as you turn the gas up or down, etc.
- polalavik 2y agoCarbon steel pans / stainless steel pans are also an option. Switched to carbon steel a couple years ago and haven’t looked back. Sometimes it’s a little more difficult, but once you get the technique down it’s as easy as non stick. It’s also cool to know the pan will work for decades to come. Non stick pans inevitable start breaking down and just become toxic trash.
- NoMoreNicksLeft 2y agoIf you're not averse to high prices, copper pans are available too. Though a full set seems like it'd set you back $5000 or more. I've got a few from estate sales and other places for just a couple bucks, but there's only like 3 or 4 places in the United States to get them retinned, and they all want $120+ per pan (and that's with shipping it twice where they could get stolen, lost, or crushed). Half-tempted to try to do it myself. What's a few ounces of tin cost? The fiberglass glove's not that expensive. Afraid of screwing it up somehow though.
- OutOfHere 2y agoThis is a disaster in the making. Expect copper toxicity if cooking in copper. It happens more often than you think.
- NoMoreNicksLeft 2y agoI can't tell if you're ignorant or trolling. They're not commonly sold, because poor people have to make due with $10 teflon pans (you know, the "forever chemicals") at Dollar General. https://mauviel-usa.com/collections/copper-sets https://mauviel-usa.com/collections/copper-sets The 12 piece set is $4200. You were probably too poor growing up to ever learn anything about this is my guess. But to reduce your anxiety, I'll point out that the cooking surface is tinned.
- OutOfHere 2y agoI can't tell if you're ignorant or trolling. You have evidently not read the case reports of copper toxicity from cooking utensils resulting in irreversible organ damage. Even if the internal surface is tin, it will easily thin out when on the stovetop, resulting in the food coming in contact with copper, leaking much copper into the food. Tin is also not okay with acidic foods either, again thinning out and bringing the copper into contact with food. I guess money doesn't teach even an iota of common sense. In short, it is not worth even $42. If you're making a museum at home with your utensils, you're solving no one's problem, not even your own.
- hu3 2y agoYep, and glass containers for storing.
- OutOfHere 2y agoBesides glass, steel containers are fine too for storing dry items.
- NoMoreNicksLeft 2y agoIt's often difficult to find metal utensils. Even when you can, they often have plastic handles... that sort-of-greasy, brightly colored plastics where the Chinese factory that made them used every plasticizer known to man. If you're lucky, wooden handles are available, but you see less of those every year. Not just Walmart/Target, but all the big box stores, even places you'd expect to be more upscale. Searched for 2 or 3 years for a can-opener that wouldn't fall apart in a few months, finally found one. Nice big crank handle... but plastic knob on it. I don't think this can be solved by shopping at some hoity-toity NYC department store if only because anyone shopping at those places probably doesn't eat out of cans much. Also, many of the foods one could have bought in glass jars just 10 or 15 years ago are now exclusively plastic. We switched to some regional off-brand on mayonnaise a few years ago because it was still in a glass jar, but even they eventually started selling it in plastic. Same with all the other condiments. Produce used to be in the egg-carton cardboard... I remember strawberries being sold that way as a kid. Or in little cheaply-woven baskets of some sort. I haven't seen that stuff since the 1980s. Deli meats used to be wrapped in butcher's paper, but sometime in the 1990s was put into plastic bags. Ice cream wasn't always sold in cardboard tubs (I remember even as a kid that the cheapest stuff was in plastic and I'm not sure why that is), but now even the premium brans have some plastic in contact with the product.
- hammock 2y ago>It's often difficult to find metal utensils. Even when you can, they often have plastic handles Restaurant supply store
- dylan604 2y agoSounds like a potential YouTube channel of someone buying what you would consider an otherwise acceptable product except for the plastic and then replacing them with DIY wooden replacements. Don't forget to smash that...ick
- Ductapemaster 2y agoI highly recommend trying a restaurant supply store, like Chef's Toys. Most of them don't require a business license to go to (the ones that do typically sell food items). They sell primarily to commercial kitchens and restaurants, and often have a wide selection of "bare bones" cookware at various levels of quality to meet your budget. A lot of my kitchen items are from there — stainless bowls, a big stock pot, metal + wood cooking utensils, some knives, heavy-duty whisk, some glassware, my one non-stick pan, dry food bins, etc. The stuff lasts forever, and you can almost always get an exact replacement if you need it. Another suggestion is to try is IKEA. They tend to have minimalistic kitchen stuff at very reasonable prices. My basic cooking utensil set (spoon, ladle, spatula, etc) is from there and if I remember right, cost around $10. Had it for years. Great for glassware too.
- amelius 2y ago> wooden spoons I suffer from a kind of tactile aversion where I can't stand the sensation of drying a wet wooden spoon (or any wet wooden object) with a towel. Curious if anyone else has this.
- senectus1 2y agoI find bamboo to be a way around this. it doesnt have the same feel to it when wet.
- thricegr8 2y agoWow thought I was the only one my entire life. I can give lots of very weird and specific examples, but yes; N=2.
- UberFly 2y agoYes. I can't stand holding anything that's made of wood with that rough, dry texture like cheap kitchen spoons. Also I've never been able to stand Popsicle type treats due to the wooden stick.
- tharkun__ 2y agoNot really but I have an aversion to drying anything with a towel. That's why I have a dish washer, so I don't need to do those things manually. And yes I throw all my wooden cooking utensils into the dish washer and let them dry in there with all the heat it uses for that. I also leave things in the dishwasher until the heat has dissipated from all objects, which gets rid of most of the leftover dampness except for a few things including wooden utensils. I then place wooden utensils on a drying rack. Next day they go back in the cupboard. And yes I know. You're not supposed to put them in there. I've been doing that for 10 years with the same wooden utensils now and they're all fine. Some have slightly warped handles where I assume the wood is taking back it's natural shape. Most are completely fine.
- mrguyorama 2y agoYes wooden utensils are a huge sensory issue for me. I dislike using wooden cutting boards for similar reasons.
- 2y ago
- Ekaros 2y agoJust ensure that your specific cast iron or stainless steel does not contain any heavy metals.
- NickM 2y agoThe article also cites plastic takeout trays as a problem though, which is harder to avoid unless you're willing to simply never order takeout from a large percentage of restaurants.
- Amezarak 2y agoThis is really easy to avoid; cooking and eating at home is much cheaper and does not really take any more time unless you want to make something special.
- NickM 2y agoYou're ignoring the fact that lots of people really like getting takeout. There's nothing inherently wrong with wanting to pay someone else to cook a nice meal for you. The answer shouldn't be "nobody who likes takeout gets to enjoy it anymore without being poisoned," the answer should be "plastic manufacturers should be stopped from secretly poisoning people."
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- Amezarak 2y agoUnfortunately, the reality is probably just that plastic itself is bad, and you can put different lipsticks on the pig and some of them are less bad than others, but you're not really solving the problem. Of course I agree that we should avoid putting known awful chemicals in things and I will lobby for that to happen, but the easiest thing in my life to control is what I do. Takeout is a luxury. In my experience, the best thing to do is focus on the things you can control. And for whatever reason, luxuries tend to be the source of a lot of these problems and easy to cut out. This is especially the case when you consider that odds are dangerous chemicals will be replaced with chemicals not yet known to be dangerous. At the end of the day, a lot of our problems come down to consumption and convenience. How many people got cancer because nonstick was a tiny bit more convenient? Unfortunately, novel, useful substances are pretty much always going to be destructive to the biosphere in some way.