This really undersells the risk here. If you have birds and don’t want to watch them die in agony just put the PTFE stuff in the bin.
Cooking and bird safety
11–20 of 231 posts
Re: Cooking and bird safety
#12Ceramic pans these days seem like a pretty great option - non stick and non toxic. Only trade off is lower heat.
I use ceramic mainly then switch to cast iron for high heat
Re: Cooking and bird safety
#13Since a few years, I do own only iron pans. Teflon for home use as pans was a ridiculous idea: you need to take care of it and it will wear out after some time and needs to be replaced. Iron pans need very little care and get better with age. What is the point?
It's super non-stick.
I know you're going to rebut with saying that iron pans are too, and I'm sure they are, but most people don't want to put in any level of the effort needed to make iron pans as non-stick as teflon.
A lot of people care only a mild amount about cooking, and don't want to invest the time to know how to properly use a cast iron or a carbon steel (which I have and only seldom use). They'd rather get a non-stick pan which lasts a while anyway, throw whatever on there, and never worry about food sticking or cleaning it after.
Re: Cooking and bird safety
#14Anyone try to physically polish cast iron? My Lodge pans are well seasoned but still have a rough surface area that can cause bits to catch.
Yes, I used a DA orbital sander (pneumatic) to remove all the rough surface from the inside base of a Lodge pan. This, of course, removed the seasoned finish. The new surface was harder to season (took several months to get a uniform surface with no spots that would wear off under scraping/abrasion), but it's very capable now. I prefer it to the rough stock surface.
Wear a respirator unless you want to taste rust every time you breathe for several days.
Re: Cooking and bird safety
#15Since a few years, I do own only iron pans. Teflon for home use as pans was a ridiculous idea: you need to take care of it and it will wear out after some time and needs to be replaced. Iron pans need very little care and get better with age. What is the point?
It's super non-stick. I know you're going to rebut with saying that iron pans are too, and I'm sure they are, but most people don't want to put in any level of the effort needed to make iron pans as non-stick as teflon. A lot of people care only a mild amount about cooking, and don't want to invest the time to know how to properly use a cast iron or a carbon steel (which I have and only seldom use). They'd rather get…
Hm. My cast-iron skillet I've used for 20 years doesn't stick. Ever.
If there's a little stuck-on stuff on the bottom after use (should have put a little wine in there, gotten that flavor back into the dish, oh well) then a Scotch-brite bad and 30 seconds fixes it.
Re: Cooking and bird safety
#16PTFE fumes are also not exactly healthy for us humans.
Re: Cooking and bird safety
#17Since a few years, I do own only iron pans. Teflon for home use as pans was a ridiculous idea: you need to take care of it and it will wear out after some time and needs to be replaced. Iron pans need very little care and get better with age. What is the point?
I received a granite pan recently and I can't recommend it enough.
It doesn't stick and contains no teflon or any other such material.
Re: Cooking and bird safety
#18Since a few years, I do own only iron pans. Teflon for home use as pans was a ridiculous idea: you need to take care of it and it will wear out after some time and needs to be replaced. Iron pans need very little care and get better with age. What is the point?
The point was to sell Teflon pans to you repeatedly.
Re: Cooking and bird safety
#19Anyone try to physically polish cast iron? My Lodge pans are well seasoned but still have a rough surface area that can cause bits to catch.
I would like to know as well. A 12" Lodge skillet costs $30 [1]. A mirror-polished 12" Lodge skillet costs an eye-watering $250 [2]. Even if this is a special case, what is it about the polishing process that adds $100 or more to the base cost? I'd be interested to hear from anyone in the know. ---------------------------------------- [1] https://www.lodgecastiron.com/product/round-cast-iron-classi... [2] https://www…
It takes small flap/disk sanders, lots of flaps/disks, and lots of time. Just taking off the high spots takes 10-15 minutes. A mirror finish requires working through progressively finer polishing compounds and can be quite time consuming, particularly in the spots harder to reach with power/pneumatic tools (like the transition between the base of the pan and the walls).
Edit: Given the text on the site, it appears this is a single individual craftsman polishing those pans, which likely also contributes.
Re: Cooking and bird safety
#20You can do quite a lot with All-Clad stainless cookware. Heat the empty pan for 120s then add oil and reduce heat as desired. From there any sticking will be truly minimal, and for any of that use a metal spatula and you'll be all set.