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Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

theatlantic.com

701–710 of 886 posts

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#701
post #622

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Le Creuset cast iron pans Those are wrapped with enamel. Pretty hard to notice seasoning with that.

Yes, the bottom has enamel but inside the pan is cast iron. I prefer this TBH, make it easier to clean when spills happen.

It's just black enamel. There is cast iron in the middle.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#702

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> irresponsible claims Worst case scenario here is people throw out their relatively harmless spatulas and buy new ones. Big whoop.

After careful research, it turns out this conspiracy was actually started as a sales promotion by Spatula City! I have just as much evidence of this as most other theories

Joke’s on you, the same chemical conglomerates manufacture Teflon _and_ the plastic used in plastic cookware!

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#703
post #409

After 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.

A lot of vintage glass things including Pyrex contain high levels of lead. I need to look into it more, but it seems to be from paint or colors added, and clear glass items are likely fine.

If you want to have proper vintage glass fun, https://www.reddit.com/r/uraniumglass/ is endlessly entertaining.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#704
This discussion is being monitored and steered by nameless PR companies doing paid damage control for multinational companies that rhyme with the expressions ”YouDont” and ”Lemurs”.

Of course this is the perfect place to do it: if you can convince HN, HN will convince the rest of the world.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#705

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At some point a behavior or pattern becomes so reliable or so frequent that it's a valid criticism of the community as a whole.

" - This one single scientific paper changes everything and you are negligent if you don’t immediately change your life based on it." Is not a reliable, frequent, pattern that is in any way a valid criticism of the community as a whole. Incredible

What you're quoting is satire of serious commentary. Few people unironically take it to such an extreme. But the undertone it's mocking is absolutely real and persistent.

Not everyone on 4chan is a flaming bigot but yet the community as a while gets (rightfully) judged for allowing it in their midst. Why are lesser forms of poor behavior not also reflective of the community?

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#706

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Metal spatulas aren't an option for most, either, as they scratch pans. So what's the suggested realistic alternative? Wood? Edit: wasn't trying to be snarky or anything. Honestly concerned for my family's health and trying to figure out the best path. Wood spatulas it is. Replacing all our PTFE pans with much more expensive cast iron pans isn't an option for our budget right now. Plus I haven't seen convincing scien…

Lodge cast iron pans are like $20 and will outlast your grandchildren. You can get a set of them for < $100. Carbon steel are more expensive, but are easier to handle and I think are worth investing in at least one for daily use. They'll also last generations.

Cool, appreciate the tip! I'll check them out.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#707

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Metal spatulas aren't an option for most, either, as they scratch pans. So what's the suggested realistic alternative? Wood? Edit: wasn't trying to be snarky or anything. Honestly concerned for my family's health and trying to figure out the best path. Wood spatulas it is. Replacing all our PTFE pans with much more expensive cast iron pans isn't an option for our budget right now. Plus I haven't seen convincing scien…

Lodge cast iron pans are like $20 and will outlast your grandchildren. You can get a set of them for < $100. Carbon steel are more expensive, but are easier to handle and I think are worth investing in at least one for daily use. They'll also last generations.

+1 for carbon steel over cast iron. They heat much faster and my wife wife doesn't need my help to lift them.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#708

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…

>never using soap to clean That doesn't sound (and isn't) healthy.

I think it is healthy. There is basically nothing to be worried about that dealt killed by water or heat. A hot pan is twice the temperature of a medical autoclave.

Soap is more of a cleaning aid for removing flavor than a safety control.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#709

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.

I do fried and over-easy in my stainless all the time. My procedure:

1. heat empty stainless over med-high flame until a drop of water scatters and glides over the whole surface (leidenfrost). It should look like beads of mercury.

2. drop to a med flame, add a bit of oil (avacodo, ghee, ....). If you're going to a lower temp oil (butter, olive, ...) drop the flame even lower and let the pan cool for a minute before adding.

3. crack eggs into the pan, and don't touch them until there's a bit of fried edge

4a. if you want over-easy, turn the flame off well before you flip, and let the residual heat cook the top.

4b. alternatively, cover the pan with a pot lid to steam the tops.

If they stick, a little bit of extra oil, or a few drops of water on the edge can help release.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#710

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Teflon is not very thermally conductive, so the bottom contacting the metal substrate may be at a significantly higher temperature than the top. Chemistry reactions have activation energies, and you can generally always trade temperature for time. If it happens in a minute at 260 C, it will still happen at 200 C, just slower.

> If it happens in a minute at 260 C, it will still happen at 200 C, just slower. I don't think that's particularly accurate unless you're considering the action of individual atoms. e.g. Water is considered to boil at 100°C but there will be some water evaporating at lower temperatures but this is a different process that only occurs at the surface. I don't think it's accurate to say that water is "slowly boiling" a…

Well yes water does evaporate at lower temperatures, it just takes a lot longer. But you’re right we don’t call that boiling.
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