Cooking with any plastic is a dubious enterprise, because heat encourages potentially harmful plastic compounds to migrate out of the polymers and potentially into the food. But, as Andrew Turner, a biochemist at the University of Plymouth recently told me, black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid.
In 2018, Turner published one of the earliest papers positing that black plastic products were likely regularly being made from recycled electronic waste. The clue was the plastic’s concerning levels of flame retardants. In some cases, the mix of chemicals matched the profile of those commonly found in computer and television housing, many of which are treated with flame retardants to prevent them from catching fire.
Do yourself a favour and start using proper cast iron or stainless steel frying pans as well. You gotta learn how to use them, but it’s a whole different level. I’m never going back to non-stick.
To get started with a new pan:
Never, ever, wash with soap. If you do by accident, repeat the above process to coat the pan again.(just don’t scrub too violently with soap - I’m being outdated with my advice here)When cooking:
I use an old cast iron that’s a bit rugged in the bottom for pancakes. It’s the most amazing thing ever. I found it in the trash one day. The cast iron allows me to use a steel spatula when it needs to be thin, otherwise I use wood.
You can wash these pans with soap, you just shouldn’t abrade them. Soap isn’t going to remove the molecular bonding unless you’re scrubbing the hell out of it.
Also, Teflon’s a no go but I was under the impression ceramic is ok. Is anything wrong with that coating for cooking?
Ceramic loses its’ non-stick properties quite fast, cause the coating gets micro-cracked.
I’m on year four of using a ceramic pan to cook scrambled eggs in butter at least 4 days a week and it is still pretty slick.
Is it other foods like acidic tomato sauces that mess with the coating?
Your coating might be ok for you still, while still having lost a lot of its’ non-stickiness.
Usually, you can fry eggs on non-stick pans without butter (even if butter is delicious): can you sill do that?
It’s usually not a chemical reaction like what’s happening with acidic foods on the coating of a cast iron/carbon steel pan. Ceramics is quite brittle, so mechanical shocks can create micro cracks, which are hard to see but make food stick.
Yeah our Fika ceramic pans aren’t that great anymore after 2 years.
Thanks - apparently modern soap is much milder on the seasoning, so it’s not really a problem any more. I’ve never thought to question the advice that was passed down the generations. :)
Nothing wrong with ceramic from a food safety perspective. I love it in my cast iron pot, not sure I would go for it in a frying pan.
Only that you shouldn’t expect it to actually be non-stick, LOL. Personally, I don’t see the point of it and consider it inferior to cast iron, carbon steel, enameled cast iron, or stainless-clad aluminum.
A new cast iron pan should be washed with soap and water. They’re usually coated with something you don’t want to be eating to keep them from rusting from the factory to your home. You scrub that off and then season it.
Huh, good to know - I’ve only ever used old ones. They always clean off pretty easy with just water and a firm dish brush.
After Googling a bit, it turns out dish soaps were much more powerful in the past, which is why old people always say not to use dish soap in a pan. Newer soaps are generally milder and won’t damage the seasoning. It never occurred to me to question it. Thanks!
I’ll probably keep going without soap though, but it’s nice to know I can be a little less fanatic about it. :)
I wash my cast iron with dish soap after every use and I can still slide eggs around in the pan. Definitely agree, though. I only have 1 non-stick pan that I almost never use. Stainless steel and cast iron are really the only 2 types that you need
Enameled cast iron (which IMO is different enough from regular cast iron to be a separate category) is a nice choice for dutch ovens.
Ah, 3 types!!! I love my enameled dutch oven. It goes right from the stove top into the oven and cleans easy. I’ve even got a small enameled sauce pan, but don’t use that as much.
I thought this is only something done to cast iron. Should you do this with stainless steel pots too?!
The “to get started with a new pan” part only applies to (bare, not enameled) cast iron. The “when cooking” part applies to both.
Generally you don’t need to worry much about pots. If you have a problem of things sticking in them while cooking I guess it would work though. I have a coated cast iron pot for proper cooking, so I rarely use my stainless steel one for other things than boiling stuff. No need to season them for that.
It needs to be done to stainless steel frying pans. If you go for a stainless steel frying pan you probably want to get a five-ply one, which means that there are two layers of (usually) aluminium inside the pan helping with heat distribution. Once you have that it’s a great alternative to cast iron - I find it easier to deglaze because the surface is shiny. But in its own right heat distribution in stainless steel is not good enough to make for a good pan, and a good stainless steel frying pan comes with a bit of a learning curve.
I guess it’s the same thing with carbon steel as well, but I have no experience with that.
Greenpan FTW!