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Cooking and bird safety

teflon.com

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Re: Cooking and bird safety

#211

Post by Sporktacular »

ksd482 wrote: post #179
Sporktacular wrote: post #174

Just to birds, of course. We have nothing to worry about until 15 years from now that we learn burning teflon causes some poorly understood conditions the maker knew about all along. Ban it already. https://theintercept.com/series/the-teflon-toxin/

What could be a better alternative to non-stick pans?

I don't understand the question. What would be a better alternative to poisonous cookware?

It's not clear how convenience is even part of the equation. It's not their proper use, it's the manufacturing of teflon, the disposal of used cookware and use of it when scratched. What's better than non-stick cookware? Literally anything. Teflon is a scourge.

Re: Cooking and bird safety

#212

Post by Sporktacular »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #193
Sporktacular wrote: post #174

Just to birds, of course. We have nothing to worry about until 15 years from now that we learn burning teflon causes some poorly understood conditions the maker knew about all along. Ban it already. https://theintercept.com/series/the-teflon-toxin/

At what temperature does Teflon begin to break down?

Do we know it's 100% stable below such a temperature? It doesn't really matter as its production alone has been an environmental catastrophe.

Re: Cooking and bird safety

#213

Post by ronyeh »

tlavoie wrote: post #208
rpastuszak wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mean just salmon skin? How do you prepare it?

I just smoked a batch of salmon, skin-on. When we eat some, some very happy dogs get the skin. I would be curious if there was a good prep for human consumption though.

Humans can eat it the same way. I just pan fry until it's crispy and add some salt to taste. My kids love fried salmon skin (along with salmon + rice + dry seaweed wrap).

Re: Cooking and bird safety

#214

Post by tlavoie »

tlavoie wrote: post #208
rpastuszak wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mean just salmon skin? How do you prepare it?

I just smoked a batch of salmon, skin-on. When we eat some, some very happy dogs get the skin. I would be curious if there was a good prep for human consumption though.

I'm not usually a fan of the texture straight off the meat, but frying it up does sound good! And after all, this has been smoked already, so there's a ton of flavor.

Re: Cooking and bird safety

#215

Post by axpy »

nobodyandproud wrote: post #90
roboben wrote: post #4

Since a few years, I do own only iron pans. Teflon for home use as pans was a ridiculous idea: you need to take care of it and it will wear out after some time and needs to be replaced. Iron pans need very little care and get better with age. What is the point?

Cast iron wares are heavy. I had a lovely fight with my wife many years ago, because she threw away my cast irons; in her words it was “dirty” and “sticky” and she replaced them with teflon. Years later she is a convert—from small, personal pans to dutch ovens that heat retention makes a difference—but I’m called to move them around but she’ll ensure that it gets oiled and seasoned after every use. We also have high…

I used to cook almost exclusively with cast iron but lately I bought a set of heavy carbon steel skillet, they are now my favorites. They have a very similar heat retention as CI but are a bit lighter and that make them a real charm to work with.

Re: Cooking and bird safety

#216

Post by Doxin »

ainiriand wrote: post #136
vosper wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think carbon steel is better than stainless. It can be seasoned to almost Teflon levels of non-stickness, just by burning some cooking oil, the seasoning is maintained by cooking, often comes pre-seasoned, is cheap (there’s no reason to buy an expensive carbon steel pan! Get one from a restaurant supplier)

So you eat burnt oil every time you cook?

Most oils polymerize at high temperatures. Getting the temperature juuuust right is pretty tricky in a home setting. Much easier is to just burn the shit out of the oil and wipe away the burnt oil, leaving any oil that happened to polymerize behind.

This is in fact how they used to make linseed based paints. They'd boil the oil, setting the stage for it to polymerize, and add pigments. The oil would slowly polymerize after being applied, locking the pigment into place. These days I think they mostly use chemical accelerants instead, Which makes the curing times much more tolerable.

Re: Cooking and bird safety

#217

Post by Doxin »

tomxor wrote: post #128
graypegg wrote: post #25

Stainless steel with some basic seasoning every once in a while (oil, high heat, it’s easy to do) has done me well for a long time. I do keep a non stick around just for eggs though, hard to beat.

I switched to stainless last year after getting fed up of going through so many teflon pans, and decided I wanted to stop ingesting teflon flakes (I know PFOA is not technically in the end result and it's supposed to be inert, but I'd rather not ingest it all the same). Cooking on stainless is not as bad as I expected in terms of sticking, it does require better care over temperature control, but that also seems to h…

Honestly my favorite thing about non-nonstick pans is how if something gets stuck you can just dig it out with a metal implement. Turns out things sticking is much less a problem if you can just force a sharp metal spatula under there.

Re: Cooking and bird safety

#218

Post by rpastuszak »

ronyeh wrote: post #213
tlavoie wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just smoked a batch of salmon, skin-on. When we eat some, some very happy dogs get the skin. I would be curious if there was a good prep for human consumption though.

Humans can eat it the same way. I just pan fry until it's crispy and add some salt to taste. My kids love fried salmon skin (along with salmon + rice + dry seaweed wrap).

This sounds great! A salmon version of pork cracklings but somewhat more umami.

Re: Cooking and bird safety

#219

Post by JoeAltmaier »

NegativeLatency wrote: post #23
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hm. My cast-iron skillet I've used for 20 years doesn't stick. Ever. If there's a little stuck-on stuff on the bottom after use (should have put a little wine in there, gotten that flavor back into the dish, oh well) then a Scotch-brite bad and 30 seconds fixes it.

> doesn't stick. Ever. > If there's a little stuck-on stuff So it does stick?

Not so I should use exotic plastic coatings (Teflon) and expensive cleaners to avoid. A few seconds gentle washing.

There's way, way too much made over so-called 'non-stick' pans. Worst experience I even had with sticking? A non-stick pan.

Re: Cooking and bird safety

#220

Post by JoeAltmaier »

PeterisP wrote: post #167
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hm. My cast-iron skillet I've used for 20 years doesn't stick. Ever. If there's a little stuck-on stuff on the bottom after use (should have put a little wine in there, gotten that flavor back into the dish, oh well) then a Scotch-brite bad and 30 seconds fixes it.

I use non-stick pans so that I don't ever have to care about things like that. "should have put a little wine in there" - well, I should not have to! I expect that after I sear some meat, there will be nothing that will require scrubbing the pan with a Scotch-brite pad and that I don't even have to check if there's any little stuck-on stuff. I don't care if fixing this is easy, because I can live in a world where it…

Not a cook, are we? You put wine in there to get all the 'fond' back into the finished dish, so it tastes yards better. Not a burden or a duty; something good cooks know to do.

I never seasoned my pan. I never work to clean it, not any more than washing that non-stick on.

We've been sold a bill of goods, by the non-stick pan people, that there's some problem that needs solving. There isn't. The worst sticking problem I ever had, was with a non-stick pan. Threw it away, went back to iron.

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