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Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

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Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#661

Post by Wowfunhappy »

dfxm12 wrote: post #489
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #468

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you find a non-Teflon waffle iron?

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.

I mentioned it because it was an issue for my family growing up. My mother is an oncologist and has long been concerned about any plastic cookware. However, we were never able to do anything about the waffle iron, and family waffle mornings were a pretty important fixture in my family.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#662

Post by azemetre »

chuckledog wrote: post #594
azemetre wrote: post #548

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 co…

Yeah, eggs can be hard. What I do is have a smaller cast iron pan strictly for a single egg. I just make sure to use more butter and clean after right after.

Either that or use a stainless steel pan.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#663

Post by noman-land »

ahoka wrote: post #268
noman-land wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Use butter.

Only total amateurs would use butter for making eggs. It's full of proteins and sugars that would burn.

Here is Julia Child making eggs with butter. FOH.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQL64qG7pNs

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#664

Post by lowbloodsugar »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #512
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.

"Should I risk this?" is the wrong question in life. The burden of proof, as it were, is on those who are alleging a risk. I'm not gonna go through life worrying about every little thing just because it might be a problem. That goes double because people are constantly finding new things to worry about, most of which amount to nothing in the end.

That would make sense in a just society. Here in the USA, I would factor evidence in such as, do corporations have a habit of using chemicals that are later shown to be toxic? Do corporations prefer to let people die rather than recall, say an exploding car? Do corporation put out armies of lawyers and doctors to convince everyone that their product does not cause lung cancer? Do corporations now use automation to brigade and create the appearance of a majority?

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#665

Post by dyauspitr »

kristjansson wrote: post #638

The only reason to use ever plastic spatula is to avoid damaging a 'fragile' nonstick pan ... that you probably shouldn't be using anyway. Just use carbon/stainless steel pans, wood turners, and metal spatulas. Your food will be better and the implements will last ~forever.

I minimize my use of nonstick pans to as little as possible but some things are pretty much impossible to cook in stainless steel pans. Like how would you go about making over easy eggs? That’s something I have a lot of.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#666

Post by a123b456c »

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…

> Academics who specialize in obscure areas love to get their name in the press, and the easiest way to do that is to go to a reporter and make vague and irresponsible claims about risks to human health, even if those risks are very, very small.

I won't deny that many such academics exist. And yet...

The numerous successful academics at reputable universities that I know (including me) are uniformly mortified when our names are associated with mistaken interpretations in the press. Some of us (including me) simply stop doing press interviews because it happens so often.

If you want to find an incentive to get undeserved attention, I recommend you look at economic incentives within the press itself. Too much time pressure, not enough training, desperate need to gather attention to sell ads. All the opposite of the academic world.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#667

Post by gjhan »

svachalek wrote: post #625
marcosdumay wrote: post #570

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there is a sub-$20 cost Plus the risk of the alternative you pick being much worse than the original option.

For some things maybe, but usually there's an option where the risk is pretty negligible. I feel pretty confident we're not going to declare wooden spatulas to be a massive health concern.

Why?

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#668

Post by gav »

svachalek wrote: post #625
marcosdumay wrote: post #570

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there is a sub-$20 cost Plus the risk of the alternative you pick being much worse than the original option.

For some things maybe, but usually there's an option where the risk is pretty negligible. I feel pretty confident we're not going to declare wooden spatulas to be a massive health concern.

There's a risk for wooden ones that are glued, specifically bamboo, or finished with something toxic. You should probably stick to ones made from a single piece of hardwood and are unfinished.

There's also a risk that any cracks will fill with bacteria.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#669

Post by mtalantikite »

lxgr wrote: post #596
bell-cot wrote: post #571

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Try out carbon steel if you haven't. Season it once and it's essentially non-stick -- all I do is give mine a light rinse for a few seconds and then towel dry.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#670

Post by zemo »

kristjansson wrote: post #638

The only reason to use ever plastic spatula is to avoid damaging a 'fragile' nonstick pan ... that you probably shouldn't be using anyway. Just use carbon/stainless steel pans, wood turners, and metal spatulas. Your food will be better and the implements will last ~forever.

people generally don't use metal tools on enameled cast iron, which is plenty strong
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