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Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

theatlantic.com

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Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#351

Post by Filligree »

candiddevmike wrote: post #307
Aachen wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe a stupid question, but how can I tell the difference between plastic and silicone? We use a black spatula that's flexible (shapes a bit to the curvature of what you're wiping, super convenient) and doesn't scratch the pan while not being porous like wood (where I always wonder how many bacteria live in these crevasses). It seems perfect and is being sold specifically for cooking so I assumed this plastic, if th…

I read somewhere that if you bend/squeeze silicone, it shouldn't turn white. If it does, it's plastic. You may need to really bend/squeeze it.

Not all plastics do either, but it’s something.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#352

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

ars wrote: post #140
pama wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuine question: why? I thought people in many long-living cultures often cook with high temperature oil, and not just the street food wok cooking. There is bad chemistry that can happen with other food components at high temperatures but what is the problem with oil itself?

At too high a temperature oil will smoke and burn, leaving toxic components in both the oil and in the air. My point is that the temperature necessary to cause this oil toxicity, is lower than what you need to make Teflon toxic. Teflon becomes toxic at temperature FAR above any cooking process (unless you eat charcoal). i.e. if you cook normally and don't burn things Teflon is obviously fine, if you do burn things yo…

> Teflon becomes toxic at temperature FAR above any cooking process (unless you eat charcoal)

Teflon begins to decompose above 260°C which can be reached by heating an empty pan, but yes you wouldn't want to be cooking at that temperature.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#353

Post by hanniabu »

ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #340
emddudley wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we're talking about health and cookware, you're not going to want nonstick cookware.

It's fine if it's not scratched and you don't overheat it.

> don't overheat it

Good luck with that. Temperature isn't perfect and hot pockets of higher temperatures form.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#354

Post by GrantMoyer »

cies wrote: post #225
positr0n wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They're toxic * When heated to high temperatures Below 450F or so they don't react with anything. PTFE won't react with your egg you're frying, or the inside of your knee. (PTFE is used in surgical implants, among other things that can safely go inside your body)

When you scratch them, and bits PTFE come loose, and you eat those bits, will they simply bee excreted, or will your body absorb (some of) it and never excrete it?

Many medical implants are made of PTFE because of how inert it is.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#355

Post by sebmaynard »

mannyv wrote: post #341
xmodem wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wood is not dishwasher safe, metal will damage the cookware's non-stick coating, which may be worse than the plastic I'm trying to avoid. I guess that leaves silicone.

Silicone's flavor leaches into your food, which some people can notice.

I'm one of those people. Absolutely can't stand it

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#356

Post by em-bee »

andy_ppp wrote: post #94

Oh dear my kettle is made from black plastic…

what bothers me is the black plastic handles on pots and pans when cooking with gas. they get way to hot and produce a strong odor that makes me worry about what kind of gasses are released there that i am breathing in.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#357

Post by bluGill »

andruby wrote: post #299
bluGill wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What better option? resistance electric is clearly worse in other ways. I've heard induction is good but it is an expensive luxury option and not common even in that niche. i've heard it is reasonable priced in other countries but not the us.

Is $59 for a single hub, or $849 for a full cooktop really that much of an "expensive luxury"? These things last for decades and cost less than most mobile phones. https://www.ikea.com/us/en/cat/induction-cooktops-20813/

A hob takes up space my tiny kitchen doesn't have to spare, and besides the limited power available at the wall in the US means it isn't that useful.

In the US we almost always use a range not a cooktop. I need one with an oven. Something like https://www.homedepot.com/p/Amana-30-in-4-Burner-Element-Fre... - which is several hundred cheaper than what you linked. As long as I'm going to replace what I have, spending a little more for the other features I want seems like a good idea - I will likely use it for decades as you say, and induction is in a very limited selection such that I can't really get any other options at any price. (well I did eliminate some Samsung options - Samsung has earned their bad reputation in kitchen appliances)

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#358

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

hanniabu wrote: post #353
ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's fine if it's not scratched and you don't overheat it.

> don't overheat it Good luck with that. Temperature isn't perfect and hot pockets of higher temperatures form.

The problem temperature is 260°C which can easily be avoided by not heating an empty pan (oil/liquids will distribute the heat more evenly) and you'd be unlikely to want to cook at that kind of temperature.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#359

Post by bluGill »

namibj wrote: post #294
bluGill wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What better option? resistance electric is clearly worse in other ways. I've heard induction is good but it is an expensive luxury option and not common even in that niche. i've heard it is reasonable priced in other countries but not the us.

You can get an induction hob for 50 bucks at IKEA. So spending more than a 200 $ premium over a resistance stove with 4 hobs means you're being ripped off or spending on luxury.

Right, but the premium tends more to $1000 for the brands that have earned a bad reputation. If you want something that you can expect to be good quality you are looking at more like $2000.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#360

Post by potato3732842 »

michaelt wrote: post #274
MrSkelter wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The precautionary principle plus what we know about heating plastic makes your reticence seem churlish. There are easy, safe alternatives in wood, metal and silicone. There’s no need to risk it.

In my country we have some ridiculous newspapers that will publish any story with "may cause cancer" in the headline. So for a lot of people these stories are a boy-who-cried-wolf situation. Precautionary principle? I'm sorry to say stainless steel may leech heavy metals into food during cooking [1] And also silicone may leech potentially harmful chemicals into food [2] Nonstick coatings? Teflon flu "could be a real…

The part that really drives me up the wall is that the demographics who decades ago decried plastics to be superior because they don't harbor bacteria like wood or break dangerously like glass are roughly the same ones who are now complaining about plastic.

I don't have a cultural analogy for this situation but whatever it is is worse than "boy who cried wolf".

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