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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

#771

Post by Arch-TK »

Moru wrote: post #754
Arch-TK wrote: post #586

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people like cold brew, others don't. I fall into the latter camp. Then again, the only things in the cold-water path of my machine are: - silicone gaskets - silicone grease - PTFE - silicone tubes - clear plastic water tank As for the hot path: - silicone gaskets - silicone grease - aluminium - steel - copper - brass - PTFE (in contact with steam)

I think Coldbrew is even more dependent on what coffee beans and roast you use, we have tried a few and they are very different. But so far I liked them all. Maybe you preffer the bitter taste of cooked coffee? That is something that is missing from all our tries with coldbrew.

> Maybe you preffer the bitter taste of cooked coffee?

Definitely not.

But the thing about cold-brew is that it tastes mostly sour to me and nothing else (which is unsurprising given our taste-buds are most sensitive at higher temperatures, and proper extraction of coffee can't happen at those lower temperatures as some compounds just won't dissolve at the same rate, and sour compounds in coffee dissolve the fastest). With warm brewed (+ warm drank) coffee things are more balanced (not just straight sour) and you get the interesting flavour notes from the bag.

I don't think the quality of the coffee I am using is the problem. It might be the variant, but I enjoy natural light roasts (and light roast is already difficult to brew without it getting too sour).

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#772

Post by pokktra »

teractiveodular wrote: post #577
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

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.

> Metal spatulas cause damage to frying pans.

No they don't. How can you even say that with a straight face? Scuffing the surface != damage.

There's a big difference between cooking on a piece of metal, and cooking on a multiple layers of chemicals invented by the aerospace industry; or overheating a metal spatula or overheating utensils made from recycled electronics' plastic.

This idea that it is impossible to cook without all this over-engineered, hyper-marketed, disposable, mass-produced QVC crap is utter nonsense.

Nobody needs teflon, or nylon, or plastic too cook with. You can cook perfectly fine with centuries old technology. The same way the people who invented the recipes cooked centuries ago.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#773

Post by mattmaroon »

paulgerhardt wrote: post #464
crazygringo wrote: post #408

I really wish OXO would put out a statement here. A lot of people use it's black plastic tools like this one [1] -- like a lot of brands, OXO calls its black plastic tools "nylon" to differentiate from "silicone" -- and it would be really, really good to know if OXO has always rigorously made sure never to use recycled plastics, or if testing shows that its own products contain flame retardants. In other words, when…

Oxo claims they use Eastman Tritan Renew recycled plastics [1] which are FDA and EFSA certified for food use[2]. That said, I’ve personally been to multiple cookware factories in China and Taiwan and saw bags of Dow thermoplastic resins next to various cheaper-by-half China brands. The reason name brands go with Dow is the consistency in Pantone color matching colored parts. For black, it would be trivial for the con…

Where can I read all of your stories about all of it? I do a lot of work in food production but none in cook tool production and find it very interesting

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#774

Post by pokktra »

zeroonetwothree wrote: post #680
r00fus wrote: post #647

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently learned how to cook non-stick with my stainless steel pan [1]. Needless to say it's a bit more involved, but I felt more accomplished when I figured out how to cook with it. Pros: SS can go right in the dishwasher, it's safe & you can use metal spatula, no worry about loss of efficacy over the years. Cons: It takes a minute more to prep, harder to clean (sides/edges aren't non-stick) Personally, between th…

Usually “nonstick” in the cooking context means “nonstick without any added fat”. So a stainless steel pan is never “nonstick”.

You need fat on 'nonstick' too. This is another common myth.

Sure, your T-Fal pan will "release a fried egg" instantly for the first 20~30 fried eggs, but then they will start sticking as the coating naturally erodes into your food and your body (including the adhesives that make a 'non-stick' surface adhere to metal). A splash of olive oil is all you need, and olive oil it is one of the healthiest foods out there.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#775

Post by fooblaster »

delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #658
fooblaster wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really disagree on the tomato sauce being okay in cast iron. Cooking high acidity food will absolutely strip all the seasoning off your pan if done for long enough. It has nothing to do with rust.

> Cooking high acidity food will absolutely strip all the seasoning off your pan if done for long enough That statement doesn't seem compatible with the chemistry. The seasoning on a cast-iron is a (plastic) polymer that is fairly resistant to acid attack—especially the weak acids in food. It's why the strongest and most concentrated acids are stored in plastic and not glass beakers.

Try it. 60 minutes boiling tomatoes takes the seasoning right off. its recommended as a way to restart seasoning from nothing. vinegar is also an alternative.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#776

Post by kbelder »

CtrlAltmanDel wrote: post #479
potato3732842 wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The part that really drives me up the wall is that the demographics who decades ago decried plastics to be superior because they don't harbor bacteria like wood or break dangerously like glass are roughly the same ones who are now complaining about plastic. I don't have a cultural analogy for this situation but whatever it is is worse than "boy who cried wolf".

What an irrationally angry sentiment. Praytell, what "demographic" would this be?

'Busybodies'

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#777

Post by Eumenes »

tensor wrote: post #67
Eumenes wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This - its super easy. I use an IR temp gun and once the pan is 170, add 1 tbsp. of butter, and it never sticks. I've showed friends and they still insist on their nasty Teflon/non-stick crap.

170c right? I do the same but use 350f. I also heat the pan before adding oil. Works perfectly every time. Even more nonstick than any nonstick pan I’ve used.

yep, 170c and I also heat the pan up before adding fat/oil and agreed, its better than non-stock and honestly even easier to clean.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#778

Post by gjm11 »

Etheryte wrote: post #207
iamacyborg wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m in my late 30’s and have basically forever used wooden chopping boards and wooden utensils. I’ve not gotten sick from home cooking once. I think you might be overstating the potential harm here.

This is as useful of an insight as saying that I'm in my late 30s and never gotten Covid, I think you might be overstating the potential harm here. A sample size of one is not much use when we talk about statistical probabilities.

COVID-19 has only been around for about five years, as the name indicates, so "I'm in my late 30s" says nothing about how many opportunities you've had to get it, whereas being in one's late 30s does say something about how many opportunities they've had to get (or give someone else) food poisoning.

I'm in my mid-50s. I use wooden cooking implements a lot. I clean them pretty carefully. So far as I know, no one has ever got sick from eating food I've cooked.

The sample size is one person cooking but it isn't only one opportunity to get food poisoning. Let's say 20 years, 300 days per year, one meal per day; that's 6000 food-poisoning opportunities, none of which has obviously resulted in food poisoning for anyone involved. That is in fact quite good evidence that the risk of serious food poisoning on any single occasion, if you use wooden implements but are reasonably careful with them, isn't high enough to be noticeable above the baseline rate of people getting sick.

If someone doesn't take any particular precautions and never gets COVID-19, that is evidence that COVID-19 is less of a threat than it's sometimes felt to be. But not very much evidence, and it can readily be outweighed by all the other people who have got COVID-19, including some who did take reasonable precautions. Similarly, my and iamacyborg's anecdotal evidence could absolutely be outweighed by statistics correlating food poisoning with type of cooking implements. If anyone has those, I'd be very interested to see them.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#779

Post by SoftTalker »

azemetre wrote: post #653
Dalewyn wrote: post #609

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

You hear this sometimes from cast iron owners that think using some soap will "ruin" the seasoning. It's a myth, you can absolutely use soap. My preferred method is chainmail + coarse salt + small drop of dawn.

Yes, I use a little bit of Dawn when the pan is really greasy or crusty. Hot water in the pan, a little bit of Dawn, let it sit for a few minutes, scrub. Dawn is not agressive enough to remove the seasoning, it will just emulsify the liquid grease/oil in the pan.

Do not put them in the dishwasher though, or you'll have to re-season them.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#780

Post by s1artibartfast »

0_____0 wrote: post #770
s1artibartfast wrote: post #708

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

A little mentioned downside to cast iron is that it's porous enough that it will absolutely absorb certain things like turmeric that will only come out once you cook something else in it, no amount of washing or soap seems to make a difference past a certain point. Kind of a non issue to me, just a quirk of the tool.

Humm, Ive never had a problem. I would think that the polymer layer would seal out the tumeric.

That said, I usually use tumeric in liquid dishes with a stainless pot. What are you cooking?

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