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The Teflon Toxin

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Re: The Teflon Toxin

#61

Post by hussong »

wiz21c wrote: post #50
CodeWriter23 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We use bacon fat or avocado oil. For cleaning, we use a Lodge plastic scraper if needed. And we never use soap. We wash our cast iron with about 2TBSP of kosher salt. Just dry on the pan, maybe a few drops of water, rub with a paper towel. Removes all the food debris while protecting the seasoning. Rinse the salt out with some water then dry or deglaze immediately.

I doubt that. I do more or less as you do but, after that process, if I take a clean towel and rub it against the "clean" surface, it invariably comes back with a distinct brown color. That brown color doesn't look like "clean" to me, it's more like burnt oil... I'd expect my towel to be 100% clean if that "seasoning" was working as advertised...

You can think of the brown color as a feature, not a bug.

Yes, it is effectively burnt oil and you probably shouldn't eat too much of it, but it will give steaks for instance a great crust and I think it adds a bit of flavor as well.

Re: The Teflon Toxin

#62

Post by pyre »

sanoli wrote: post #10
thezilch wrote: post #9

I've never understood the gravity of Teflon pans. I can never seem to keep them non-stick, whether it be because of using too high of heat or somehow scratch the damn thing. So, I got cast irons. It's trivial to keep them seasoned and thus non-stick, and they can take the beating of very high heat -- searing meats -- and any metal utensils or rough substances.

How do you keep them seasoned? I tried a couple of times, but couldn't get it right. Could you give me some tips?

http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-te...

Re: The Teflon Toxin

#63

Post by hussong »

thezilch wrote: post #9

I've never understood the gravity of Teflon pans. I can never seem to keep them non-stick, whether it be because of using too high of heat or somehow scratch the damn thing. So, I got cast irons. It's trivial to keep them seasoned and thus non-stick, and they can take the beating of very high heat -- searing meats -- and any metal utensils or rough substances.

Gotta love the cast irons, inherited one that's about 50 years old, took me a while to season it properly, but now it's working like a charm. When you take good care of them, they will last for several generations.

Re: The Teflon Toxin

#64

Post by 13years »

azinman2 wrote: post #3

Horrible. This is what's so scary about the free market and our current chemical regulations of innocent until proved guilty. People cover up, even the biggest most "professional" here (DuPont), and the public gets decades of abuse. Why is it that medication requires FDA approval with lots of animal/human tests before you can sell it, but chemicals do not? Here the tests internally done showed prove of issue year aft…

Free markets when supported by strong property rights can have strong protections to prevent harm or pollution.

Non free markets, although regulated, don't necessarily perform better and can even perform worse in this regard. The FDA is a great example of an agency which often can be seen to work harder to protect the industry than the individual. For example, look up the story of Vioxx. A drug which killed 50k people, passed all FDA processes and when the manufacturer was caught hiding data showing this would happen the product was not even removed from the market as that would have opened the door for lawsuits against the manufacturer.

Re: The Teflon Toxin

#65

Post by proveanegative »

Htsthbjig wrote: post #19
im3w1l wrote: post #7

Tl;dr? How badly am I destroying my health by using a Teflon pan?

Now Teflon has not C8 on it as it is manufactured. You will create dangerous compounds though if your pan goes over high temperature. This could happen if for example there is no oil in the pan. I have seen housewives and cookers heat the Teflon pan without oil for evaporating the water. Big no no with Teflon. I have seen metal scrappers burning teflon pans to use the pan for something else and painting it!(with tefl…

As far as I can tell Teflon fumes themselves are only confirmed to be acutely toxic; in humans they cause flu-like symptoms and damage the lungs. The articles I have found do not say anything about there being long-term consequences for those who didn't get the acute symptoms.

Re: The Teflon Toxin

#66

Post by netrus »

ectoplasm wrote: post #41
raverbashing wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This kind of regulation sets an effective minimum size on businesses. Exactly. I find it funny how the biggest proponents of regulation are also those who oppose big companies as well Because regulations are a very nice way of eliminating the (smaller) competition

There's no reason the government can't level the playing field by subsidizing the fixed overhead portion of meeting the regulations. They don't, and it's stupid - ever tried to buy or sell farm fresh eggs? - but there's no reason they can't.

Funny enough, eggs are the example used to discuss the impact of TTIP. In the US eggs at the supermarket are very clean. In Europe, it's forbidden to clean the eggs in any way. Often enough, you will have feathers and feces on eggs bought in the supermarket.

Re: The Teflon Toxin

#67

Post by torrent-of-ions »

sanoli wrote: post #10
thezilch wrote: post #9

I've never understood the gravity of Teflon pans. I can never seem to keep them non-stick, whether it be because of using too high of heat or somehow scratch the damn thing. So, I got cast irons. It's trivial to keep them seasoned and thus non-stick, and they can take the beating of very high heat -- searing meats -- and any metal utensils or rough substances.

How do you keep them seasoned? I tried a couple of times, but couldn't get it right. Could you give me some tips?

Just use it. I only use saturated fats in mine (mostly lard and butter) and I use metal utensiles which helps to keep it smooth. I avoid vegetable oils because I find that they go sticky (they're also not as good for you to cook with as animal fat).

Re: The Teflon Toxin

#68

Post by rayiner »

13years wrote: post #64
azinman2 wrote: post #3

Horrible. This is what's so scary about the free market and our current chemical regulations of innocent until proved guilty. People cover up, even the biggest most "professional" here (DuPont), and the public gets decades of abuse. Why is it that medication requires FDA approval with lots of animal/human tests before you can sell it, but chemicals do not? Here the tests internally done showed prove of issue year aft…

Free markets when supported by strong property rights can have strong protections to prevent harm or pollution. Non free markets, although regulated, don't necessarily perform better and can even perform worse in this regard. The FDA is a great example of an agency which often can be seen to work harder to protect the industry than the individual. For example, look up the story of Vioxx. A drug which killed 50k peopl…

Proving causation in toxic torts make it pretty much impossible to hold companies accountable. Moreover, both judges and juries strongly side with companies, who create jobs. At best these cases settle for 5-10% of the damage caused, which make them a small tax on this destructive conduct.

Re: The Teflon Toxin

#69

Post by makomk »

13years wrote: post #64
azinman2 wrote: post #3

Horrible. This is what's so scary about the free market and our current chemical regulations of innocent until proved guilty. People cover up, even the biggest most "professional" here (DuPont), and the public gets decades of abuse. Why is it that medication requires FDA approval with lots of animal/human tests before you can sell it, but chemicals do not? Here the tests internally done showed prove of issue year aft…

Free markets when supported by strong property rights can have strong protections to prevent harm or pollution. Non free markets, although regulated, don't necessarily perform better and can even perform worse in this regard. The FDA is a great example of an agency which often can be seen to work harder to protect the industry than the individual. For example, look up the story of Vioxx. A drug which killed 50k peopl…

I think this article demonstrates why that doesn't actually work in practice. DuPont contaminated several counties with a toxic chemical over the course of a decade, affecting many people's property, yet because the owners didn't even know to test for it and weren't in a position to prove that it was dangerous, let alone prove that it had harmed them specifically, DuPont got away with this.

Re: The Teflon Toxin

#70

Post by imglorp »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #37
thezilch wrote: post #9

I've never understood the gravity of Teflon pans. I can never seem to keep them non-stick, whether it be because of using too high of heat or somehow scratch the damn thing. So, I got cast irons. It's trivial to keep them seasoned and thus non-stick, and they can take the beating of very high heat -- searing meats -- and any metal utensils or rough substances.

For casual home cooks I'd recommend hard anodized aluminum. It's an excellent non-stick surface, easily hand washable, non-toxic, fairly durable, and low cost. Really as long as you aren't constantly gouging it with metal things then it'll hold up for years and years. Cast iron is great too though, don't get me wrong.

Is that wise? Al cookware has questionable safety.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium#Health_concerns

These guys recommend stainless or cast Fe. http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=dailytip&dbid=92

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