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Cooking and bird safety

teflon.com

61–70 of 231 posts

Re: Cooking and bird safety

#61
post #2

Anyone 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.

Get a Carbon Steel pan instead.

These are similar metal composition to cast iron, where you can season them with oils, but are forged (ie pressed) into shape, rather than cast. So you get a smooth surface, which is easier for non-stick use and lighter weight.

Carbon steel are better for eggs, omelettes, etc, but cast iron are often better for steaks/meats, because they retain heat better. There are tons of videos on Youtube if you are curious.

Re: Cooking and bird safety

#62
Probably a good idea to keep any birds away from the kitchen when actively cooking regardless of the type of cookware you’re using. The main danger from Teflon cookware comes from overheating it but anything cooked to a sufficiently high temperature would produce potentially toxic fumes to a bird not to mention if they’re flighted the trouble the could get into with hot pans or boiling water, etc.

Re: Cooking and bird safety

#63
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

This. I absolutely hate cooking. With a passion. I don't want to spend time on it. I wish it was possible to buy decent home cooked food for a reasonable fee :( We can outsource pretty much everything else that's a chore. I drop my washing in a bag to be ready for a tenner tomorrow. Groceries can be delivered for cheap. But delivered or takeaway food is generally very expensive and not very healthy. It's still viewed…

I've heard of people finding a large family (through Craigslist or something) that's already making many servings for every meal, often days ahead, and paying them to make one more serving and freeze and deliver it on a weekly basis.

Re: Cooking and bird safety

#64
Ha - I had a line cook show me to get a pan fuming hot, no oil, before throwing mushrooms in, the moisture from the mushrooms create a ledenfrost effect and you get as close as you can to having some browning on the mushrooms (while keeping a lot if moisture in). Can't burn em!

I'm unhappy that I've done this exclusively with t-fal non stick pans over the years. Going to get myself a nice 3 ply stainless pan today!

Edit0: If you try it, the mushrooms sound like sneakers squeaking in a gymnasium.

Re: Cooking and bird safety

#65

Stainless steel with some basic seasoning every once in a while (oil, high heat, it’s easy to do) has done me well for a long time. I do keep a non stick around just for eggs though, hard to beat.

We use seasoned cast iron for eggs with very few issues. We used to use butter which led to some sticking, however recently we've been using olive oil and it's much better, with little to no sticking depending on what style we're cooking the eggs.

Re: Cooking and bird safety

#66
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

FYI scotch-brite pads are plastic and shed microplastics into your pan.

As a replacement, there are coconut fiber based pads that work better actually.

Re: Cooking and bird safety

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I usually use stainless and cast iron but with green chef meals I’m often tasked with searing chicken or fish in a pan and cleaning those types of pan after a cook like that gets mighty old. So I bought a Tramontina non stick exclusively for those cooks. I suspect it may last a bit longer since it’s a secondary pan I only use for those cases so it feels less wasteful as a purchase.

Can you sear with a non stick? Searing requires preheating the pan hot, which isn’t recommended with Teflon I think

Asking the biochemists here…

Is all searing associsted with carcinogens regardless of how it is done — eg toaster, grill in open flame, in a pan? I tend to really like the seared pieces on bread, steaks, and especially slices of Schwarma / Gyro / Doner

Re: Cooking and bird safety

#68

Stainless steel with some basic seasoning every once in a while (oil, high heat, it’s easy to do) has done me well for a long time. I do keep a non stick around just for eggs though, hard to beat.

Eggs aren't hard to beat if you've got a good whisk.

Re: Cooking and bird safety

#69
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

My cast iron is 4 years old and every time I use scotch-brite on it, I have to spend hours stinking up my house with flaxseed oil to reseason the pan because scotch-brite makes little dots of shiny iron show up.

That seems excessive to me. I use my cast iron every day, clean it off with steel wool, and just throw a little oil on there. No fancy prep, and it cleans up with less effort than 2 year old no longer non-stick pans

Re: Cooking and bird safety

#70

> Unattended cookware that overheats—or cookware that’s heated up without anything added to the pan—can release fumes that are toxic to birds So, it's not Teflon. It's burning your pan (I wouldn't recommended breathing that in neither. And I would definitely not recommend you put your pan in the fire without any thermal load)

No, its teflon burning in your pan…
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