Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

theatlantic.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

591–600 of 886 posts

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#591

Post by DoughnutHole »

oxidant wrote: post #500
DoughnutHole wrote: post #470

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably you’re not using Teflon pans then, because there’s no way you wouldn’t notice the non-stick surface getting destroyed by metal utensils. There’s also a potential health argument against cooking with Teflon pans to begin with, but people do and those people shouldn’t be using metal if they want their pans to stay non-stick for any reasonable length of time.

I've had my share of non-stick pans, including higher quality ones. They all degrade to the point where I need to use oil. I switched to carbon steel as a daily driver two years ago and it is is trivialy non-stick with a little maintenance. The non-stick properties are infinitely refresha le, unlike "non-stick" pans. I also have cast iron and stainless pans for other uses.

Preaching to the choir here - I love carbon steel and cast iron.

Unfortunately try as we might to get people to switch, the fact is that undamaged Teflon is more non-stick than anything else and most people don’t want to put the effort into seasoning their pans.

Teflon is popular, and Teflon owners could do with utensils that don’t destroy their pans or give them cancer.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#592

Post by [deleted] »

timr wrote: post #569
dfxm12 wrote: post #484

From gidmkhealthnerd, a scientific fact-checker: Counterpoint: this seems to be the crusade of a single researcher - I don't find the data personally convincing and am still using my black spatula for cooking. https://www.threads.net/@gidmkhealthnerd/post/DBxbQERykRx?hl...

That's true of nearly everything in this space. You'll find lots and lots of comments below about PFAS and Teflon pans, for example, ranging from factual-but-misleading (e.g. "Teflon pans can emit harmful gases when overheated") to bald assertions (multiple variations on "Teflon pans are harmful to your health") with no context or specificity to the claim. Setting aside the fact that the purported harms (if specified…

[deleted]

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#593

Post by NoGravitas »

jrmg wrote: post #413
CalRobert wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but this is pretty low hanging fruit. Moving to only metal and wood spatulas, cooking spoons, etc. has been a pretty cheap and easy switch. I would love to ALSO see regulation, but in the meantime I can at least improve things for myself.

Those are either going to (metal) scratch my non-stick pans, which I’m also told (on scant evidence I believe) causes cancer, or they’re (wood) going to be inflexible and hard to wash (can’t dishwasher them), which is inconvenient.

Putting wooden spatulas in the dishwasher shortens their life, but it doesn't destroy them straight away. I don't feel bad at all about putting cheap wooden cookware in the dishwasher. And, of course, if you're using non-stick pans, worrying about black plastic is a mote/beam kind of situation.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#594

Post by chuckledog »

azemetre wrote: post #548
0_____0 wrote: post #504

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seasoning isn't that precious either. I accidentally left my cast iron on the stove and burned off most of the seasoning, took it as an opportunity to smooth out the surface with sandpaper, gave it a couple of coats of canola and put it back into service. Within a couple of days it was basically where it was before. I also do 70% of my cooking in that pan!

I've been cooking exclusively with Le Creuset cast iron pans. I use to care about seasoning and never using soap to clean but I've gotten way more relaxed as of late. I still take care of the pans and "season them" when it looks pretty bare, but I haven't really noticed much of a difference between seasoned and nonseasoned as an amateur chef. I make up for the lack of seasoning by using more butter or oil. The true r…

Just another plus one for cast-iron pans and wooden spatulas. We’ve been using those for over a decade, 20 bucks each, never needs replacing, works for everything.

We switched from gas stove to induction and now they work even better since the handle doesn’t get as hot and it’s easier to control the temperature.

The whole seasoning thing is extra credit, the only failure mode I’ve seen is trying to fry an egg on a completely unseasoned pan, which just means some extra soaking and scrubbing is needed. The pan seasons itself after a few uses. Hand wash the pan instead of sticking it in the dishwasher, done.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#595

Post by ndriscoll »

kelipso wrote: post #566
hamhock666 wrote: post #554

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why take the chance? Just buy a metal spatula next time and there’s nothing to worry about if it turns out to be true

Seriously lol, the effort vs risk ratio is insanely in favor of getting rid getting rid of plastic spatulas. Though, it should be pretty obvious even before this study that plastic, heat, and ingesting the result do not go together.

Metal spatulas are also just better. Plastic or silicone ones are like safety scissors, so of course you need non-stick pans. I don't run into sticking with cast iron and a metal spatula.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#596

Post by lxgr »

bell-cot wrote: post #571
lxgr wrote: post #556

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if you don't care about not ruining your non-stick pans (or don't use any).

The non-stick pans that release all sorts of concerning-at-even-1ppb fluorine compounds?

Yep, these, because anything else completely ruins the fun in cooking for me, as I really don't enjoy cleaning dishes longer than I've spent cooking.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#597

Post by afh1 »

UnFleshedOne wrote: post #530
lucianbr wrote: post #506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is easier to never have to worry about it if you simply decline to use plastic cooking utensils. > I actually made all of my wood cooking implements from scratch. I cut down the trees and carved them. Is this trolling? "It's easy, simple, just carve your own tools out of trees". Sounds like "just don't be poor" to me.

To be fair, making wood utensils from scratch is multiple orders of magnitude easier than not being poor.

If you are a regular city dweller, not necessarily...

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#598

Post by aphantastic »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #542
dfxm12 wrote: post #489

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're really and truly concerned about this, you have to take a long, hard look in the mirror and ask yourself, "what's more important to me, my health or waffles?" It might be time to look for a johnnycake recipe, and that's OK.

Sadly, because I answered that question for myself, I have not had a waffle in years. Has nothing to do with toxins. My old belly just can't handle waffle/pancake batter stuff. I miss waffles...

There exist truly exceptional gluten free waffle recipes^, might be worth a shot at least.

The bone broth waffle here would be a good search root (you’ll pardon the colorful menu, I hope): https://coffeedose.cafe/pages/flagship-menu

^ I’m not even gluten free typically

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#599

Post by ronyeh »

steelbrain wrote: post #584
teractiveodular wrote: post #577

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Metal spatulas cause damage to frying pans. How do I know which is worse, the plastic melting off my black spatula or the non-stick coating scraping off my frying pan? I suppose I could go cast iron, but I'm sure I can find a study saying those are terrible too.

You don't have to get cast-iron necessarily. Try carbon-steel. My mother doesn't like cast iron because of the maintenance required, and we don't use non-stick for the alleged health issues. Got a bunch of carbon-steel cookware and she loves it.

Don’t you need to season carbon steel cookware?

Or do you perform a quick season on the cooktop right before frying / searing? In that case, you could also use stainless steel cookware, which is even less maintenance than carbon steel.

Post reply on HN