Get rid of your Teflon pans when they start to flake! The pans themselves warn of high heat with pet birds in the room... that you can kill a pet bird with the overheating of a teflon pan. Of course they down play that the teflon can make humans sick. But the fact is some of us humans can get sick from overheating the teflon pans themselves and the reaction is flu like systems. You could be having a reaction to the chemicals but think you are just coming down with the flu....Or that the flaking of the coating can and most times is ingested by anyone who eats the food cooked in the pan. Even DuPont officials found (back in 1986) that the telfon will stay in our bloodstream for up to 2 years. Tests found telfon in all subjects. What cook ware is concerned green? The basic stainless steel, cooper, Ceramic, cast iron and hard anodized pans .
Stainless steel we know doesn't have the non-stick bonus we want... but is great for things like heating up vegetables and soups. As long as you don't let them go dry and burn. Same with the copper pans. Most of the time the copper pans are lined with stainless steel. My mom got us a cooper pan cooking set for my wedding present and I have a most of the pieces left........ Over twenty years old! Sauce pan, dutch oven and a saute pan with the matching lids.
Cast iron is the pans that are heavy start out as a shinny gray pan and turns into a dull jet black pan. The one benefit from this pan is the pan does effect your food, you get some iron from the pan. I use a cast iron pan quite a bit for the vegetarian meals so Miss Animal Rights can get her iron....Ok so we all can get some iron.... You need to season them after purchasing. Which is adding a thin layer of oil and cooking at a low temp for hours. The down fall and Miss Animals Rights hate for the pan, is you need to use oil and watch closely. You see things can stick to the pan. The secret is let it brown and cook thoroughly before turning over.... Great for the recipes that we brown the food first then finish cooking in the oven. Because the pan can take the heat!
Hard anodized is a process that uses electro-chemical interaction to harden the pan. It basically oxidizes the surface of the aluminum, forming aluminum oxide. It's not a coating. It is part of the pan. This keeps the pan from flaking or peeling plus making it non stick for ease in cooking and clean up. This reaction process is used on the satellites and race cars.
There area couple points that might make you not want to purchase hard anodized pans. First is cost. They do cost more than traditional pans Bad news for those on a diet; they don't well with the non stick sprays, you need to use oil or butter instead, most times you only need a little . Plus they are not dishwasher friendly. I know really it is so strange that something so green can't be used in something green like a dishwasher... but I don't have a dishwasher so I got that covered... But there is talk about dishwasher safe hard anodized pans, they might have some on line somewhere but I know I haven't seen them in the stores... I got some hard anodized pans and really thin they are worth the money. I am not eating the flakes of Teflon and my food isn't sticking.
My Dad use to tell me all the time you get what you pay for. I think I got what I paid for ...
Yes it is so true that the way we cook can actually damage certain pans. I learned the hard way too. Got myself quite a number of different types of pans to realize which one suits me. Maybe the best way is to steam all food, like some Chinese cooking. Cheap, easy, and a clean way to cook too.
ReplyDeleteI finally bought stainless steel pans after reading about the dangers of teflon coatings. It is scary how all these warnings and findings come out after you have used the products for years.
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