Maybe the most interesting takeaway from this article is that black plastic is dirtier than other colors because it’s easier to use recycled materials if you don’t care about color. Very good to know.
Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid
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Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid
#372Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ugh you reminded me how much I hate flame retardants and the horrible laws we have in America that have us spray it everywhere. I was just recently looking at bicycle seats for small kids and the one I found interesting happened to recently have a recall (Thule) as they grossly over applied the flame retardant to a point where it was immediately toxic. I am guessing it was in the foam pieces but such a depressing ide…
Why exactly do bicycle seats and toddler necklace toys need to be flame retardant again?
The people of the 1970s clutched their pearls and wrung their hands about flammable sofas in the same way that we today clutch our pearls and wring our hands about leeching plastics. The breathless articles were mostly the same except they were in places like Readers Digest instead of The Atlantic.
As another commenter stated laws were passed but more so than that the companies who make things were concerned about lawsuits and reputation damage so treating consumer textiles for flame retardants just became standard industry practice.
As an aside, I know a historical reenacter who had a need to make some char-cloth. The only thing he could find that wasn't treated was cotton work gloves.
Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid
#373This article is brief and uses big numbers to make a scary point but I'd be interested in if there is proof of causation of significant physiological effects at the exposure level from domestic cooking. Often media will say "people exposed to Y have increased Z" but fail to mention that in studies those people worked in industrial settings with Y and the exposure level is hundreds or thousands of times higher than in…
It is about the money:" The “black” in plastics is due to the addition of carbon black, which is basically a form of soot produced by the incomplete combustion of coal, petroleum or vegetable matter. It is added to plastics as a reinforcing substance, the same reason for which it finds widespread use in tires. Another benefit is that carbon black absorbs ultraviolet radiation that can cause plastics to degrade. Now f…
Carbon black is why the black nylon zip ties have a reputation for aging better all the other colors (like for like, not comparing a $20/100 hipster zip tie to a $2/100 cheap one).
Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid
#374Earlier 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.
Use a carbon steel or cast iron pan and learn how to season properly. They are very nonstick if you cook correctly in them, and their surface is incredibly durable (I use metal spatulas and I primarily cook on carbon steel and a cast iron griddle.) you can also incorporate stainless steel pots, although stainless pans are not nonstick and very hard to use for beginners.
question since you obviously know the topic!
a cast iron or "stainless" steel pan will get some gruff from cooking since its nonstick. It regularly goes to the dishwasher, some stuff won't get cleaned. Mostly oil burn stains it seems ("stainless" hardly!) .
Is that completely safe/expected ?
We obviously diddn't get that with the nonstick pans. We got rid of that stuff for a reason, now i'm not sure what is worse: nonstick pan surface OR hard-stuck burnt oil on a stainless steel pan. Thoughts?
Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid
#375im lost. whats a plastic? silicone is not plastic? why specifically black plastic? which black pigment? all black plastics use the same pigment?which plastic? is black silicone ok? how about rubber? other colors with same flame retardant is ok? or somehow only black (all plastics?) use 1 particular flame retardant? its strangely specific yet strangely vague?
I'll add one: is nylon plastic?
Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid
#376After I learned about the harmful effects of Teflon, I became much more cautious about consumption. It's nearly impossible to avoid the toxins when eating out because wax has been replaced with synthetics that leach into food from packaging. Just use metal wood or glass. One thing I'm not aware of is if Pyrex or the other tempered glasses are safe or if they also contain plastic. That would be good to learn.
Modern Pyrex is ordinary glass, mostly, and sometimes strengthened glass. Old Pyrex was borosilicate glass.
> Modern Pyrex ... Old Pyrex
Most conveniently differentiated by the branding on the product.
All caps "PYREX" is the classic (high quality) borosilicate stuff.
Titlecased "Pyrex" is the modern ordinary glass stuff.
Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid
#377Earlier 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…
Side note: If you regularly and promptly clean your wooden utensils, bacteria and germs won't set in. Bacteria only becomes an issue when the wood splinters or is damaged in some way. Also "capillary action" takes place in wood, meaning water and/or bacteria on the outside of the wooden surface essentially diffuses into the wood, "choking out" the surface bacteria and therefore not providing them with a good environm…
I make spoons and spatulas from various hardwood, one of me favorites being Mexican cocobolo. They hold up exceedingly welland despite reports of it containing irritants, neither myself or those I've made them for have any problems - I believe it's pretty much only the dust that tranfers the irritant.
Most of my utensils do not float. I finish them with a homemade or food grade beeswax. The act of cooking alters the new look, but they acquire their own, slightly less perfect, but reasonable finish.
I'll be making some katalox spoon/spats soon... another glorious wood, but not quite as remarkable as a good piece of cocobolo, which can be really special.
Anyway, my work with these utensils started for the precise purpose of avoiding plastic.
Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid
#378Just cook with stainless steel, it's not that hard. Add and warm fat before adding your other ingredients to prevent sticking or if you don't want additional fat, then add liquid to reduce at the end (the same way you do a wine reduction you can just use a bit of water) if your food sticks and you need to scrape it off the bottom.
I want to but my eggs stick like crazy. I’ve even tried all the tips too like oil when droplets float, etc.
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Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid
#379Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sincere question - my mom always told me to never put wooden utensils in the dishwasher, but I never got a great answer as to why. I put my wooden spatulas in there. My question is, is it just because it's destructive to the wood? Or is there something else that I should be concerned about?
The wood dries out and cracks.
Just to echo this comment. I don't put my wood cutting boards in the dishwasher because they dry out and crack. Wood utensils have been fine in the dishwasher. They seem much less prone to cracking than cutting boards and, when they do crack, I just throw them out and replace them with cheap new ones. I see wood utensils as a wear-item.
Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid
#380Earlier quoted context omitted.
Must people restrict their comments to only what is raised in the linked pages?
Staying on topic is viewed more positively.
This is directly related to the topic. You cant have an indepth discussion about why we use these type of utensils without a discussion of non-stick as one of hte main reasons we use them is they don't scratch nonstick. Or you can collapse the thread and move on to the discussion you are interested in, or just downvote. But complaining that one of the current points of discussion doesnt do it for ya is a pretty lame method of trying to control a topic that you dont even have interest in.