It seems I shouldn’t have posted this without context
TL;DW
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yes the video is (at least partially) about Teflon, hence the cynical title
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no, Teflon (or generally big Fluoropolymers) are not the problem. Ingesting them does nothing to you, because as long, chemically inert polymers they just pass through you from one end to the other
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The problem are perfluoroalkyl acids: C8 (PFOA) and later substitutes such as C6/GenX, PFOS, PFHA, PFHxS which are chemicals used to start the Teflon polymerization. They are short-chained carbon-fluorine molecules that coincidentally mimic the structure of fatty acids, thus can accumulate in our bodies without a way for our bodies to break them down.
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These chemicals leach into the environment from factories and accumulate in everything, to the point that the whole water cycle has been contaminated (yes that shit comes down everywhere with the rain)
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There is conclusive proof that PFOA exposure is linked to a number of organ damage and cancers, particularly testicular cancer and kidney cancer, with likely links to lung and pancreatic cancer not reflected in the study due to survivor bias (they died before the study was concluded)
Got myself a set of ceramic coated pans just a few days ago. Am very happy with them. No PFAS at all and much better anti stick than my old teflon pan.
Enameled cast iron is like magic.
Worst case I let it soak for a bit and it comes out clean with just a brush in a minute.
The trick is to use wooden spoons to prevent scratching. Egg sticks to the scratches and forces you to make more scratches as you attempt to scrape it off.
The trick is to use any cast iron, carbon steel, stainless and heat the pan then add oil before cooking. zero stick when done after heating
Doesn’t work though if I want to fry something with little or even without oil, which I do on occasion.
You need to thruoughoutly preheat it and roll rhe oil around so it gets into every pore of the pan. You can wipe off excess.
In stews and sauces, excess far can be removed if you don’t emulsify it.
Yeah unfortunately. I wish we can have pans with built-in temperature sensors
Throw water on pan and make sure the beads roll around even after touching the sides.
Ah yes red hot
No, preheated as in everything has reached operating temperature. You know, how we have cooked for 99.999% of mankinds history.
I have a 12 inch stainless steel pan, i preheat it and then add oil but some amount of sticking is inevitable, especially around the edges where ever the food isn’t touching the surface of the pan, the oil burns and polymerises on the pan and it’s a pain to remove, even with barkeepers friend, that’s why I got a 10 inch ceramic hard anodized aluminum pan for cooking eggs and small quantities of foods. I just use the big pan when cooking in bulk now.
I generally use either wood or plastic when cooking with an anti stick pan (although, supposedly ceramic coating can take more of a beating than teflon).
This puts me off it. I like to be able to use metal tools on my pans
I known, me too. But wood is basically uncookable biodegradable plastic that doesn’t give you cancer. So you use it, wash it and re-use it. It gets soaked in food and oils and stuff probably grows in its pores. But at the end of the day you don’t eat the spoon and I haven’t heard of anyone getting sick from a wooden spoon infection. but I’ve heard of millions getting cancer from “somewhere”… Pfoas.
Oh yeah wood cooking stuff is ok, my spoons are wood as I normally use a spoon with a stainless steel saucepan, then it’s a metal spatula on cast iron and I also use it over a fire pit so wood is something I would want to avoid there.
Just learn to use a stainless. The entire trick is literally only preheating.
I might, in the future, get myself a good (set of) steel pans. But for the time being, I have a pretty new set of brand name ceramic coated pans, that I got a very good deal on and that have much better anti stick characteristics than what I’ve seen steel being capable of doing and good steel pans are out of my budget rn.
should i tell you?
Ceramic-coated cookware looks nice and seems like a safe option at first. After all, 100% ceramic is completely safe for cooking purposes. However, a coating of ceramic is usually hiding bad materials.
The soft ceramic coating isn’t the most durable and starts chipping after several months of everyday use. When that happens, lead and cadmium that is sometimes found in the coating will end up in your food and later in your body. Lead poisoning is one of the most dangerous types of metal poisoning and can result in abdominal pain, headaches, infertility, and other health complications (and in severe cases, coma and death). Even when the coating is lead-free, chipped cookware can still present dangers — it’s usually neurotoxic aluminum that’s under the ceramic coating.
Thanks but I specifically bought a set that was lead and cadmium free. Besides that, I don’t use those pans daily, so they’ll still last for a while. Maybe I’ll get steel after, but as of now, I like the characteristics of a good anti-stick coating a lot more than steel.
Also, as soon as they chip, they will be replaced anyways. Why would I cook with a broken pan? You wouldn’t use a steel pan with a hole in it either.
The „the aluminium underneath is unhealthy“ is just as terrible an argument as „the steel pan hurts more when you drop it on your foot“, imo.