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Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

theatlantic.com

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Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#781

Post by kelipso »

DowagerDave wrote: post #612
kelipso wrote: post #566

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

you're only focusing on the immediate, literal replacement cost though; what if (and there are as credible papers as this one, stating so) using a metal spatula on my teflon pan causes it to get into my food and that's what will kill me? Or various metals are an even bigger health risk? >> should be pretty obvious even before this study that plastic, heat, and ingesting the result do not go together. I don't think th…

If you are using teflon pans, then metal spatulas are probably worse for you. But you should not be using teflon pans on the first place!

Also wood spatulas exist as a very good replacement for plastic spatulas for teflon pans anyway.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#782

Post by ethagnawl »

kube-system wrote: post #745
ethagnawl wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, sorry, that was implied. I would assume that's what they all use. Based on my recent personal experience, even the higher end options like Moccamaster and OXO use black plastic.

I've run into a couple of the really cheap white drip machines that are all white plastic.

I guess that's preferable to black plastics (like in my fancy OXO) but I really don't want there to be any contact between hot water and plastic.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#783

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

chefandy wrote: post #746
ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #736

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's really bizarre that the FDA is so upright that they won't allow soft raw milk cheeses to be sold I'm in the UK and didn't realise that. We easily buy raw milk cheeses here, but they do carry a warning about people with compromised immune systems and pregnant women. > There are other things that are risky that people don't realize— cooked room temperature rice, raw flour, room temperature brewed tea I was aware…

The danger in the US involves general poor tea handling with iced tea. Sun Tea involves leaving water and tea bags in the sun for a long while to do kind of a cold brew. Many places (shitty donut shops, greasy spoon diners, etc) make iced tea by stuffing the filter basket on their coffee pots with tea bags, often not getting the tea up to a safe temperature to kill pathogens. It's often then let at room temperature u…

I recall reading many years ago when I was making some kombucha that one of the problems was using a ceramic container that could leach lead into the brew - presumably related to the acidity of it.

Nowadays, I like to make kefir as that seems like the easiest fermentation - milk and kefir grains in a covered glass jar (not airtight) and leave for a day. Temperature isn't critical and there's no sterilisation needed.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#784

Post by kelipso »

timr wrote: post #717
a123b456c wrote: post #666

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 ou…

> 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. Absolutely! You're one of the good ones! I just wish you were in the majority. :-( Edit: that's unfair. I don't know if you're in the majority…

The hucksters would be over represented in the media for obvious reasons, and if you are not an academic, then you would primarily be exposed to academics via the media. Hundreds of thousands of academics doing great work, you only hear from a few dozen of them.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#785

Post by Moru »

Arch-TK wrote: post #771
Moru wrote: post #754

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)…

Ours is not sour at all and I'm pretty sensitive to sour stuff.

700 ml water, 50-60 g beans, 24 hours in fridge. When drinking we mix with 3-4 parts water. I always drink cold, wife drinks it hot. Lots of flavour and fun to try the local roasterys seasonal tastes.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#786

Post by kelipso »

timr wrote: post #718
genuinelydang wrote: post #699

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Overheat your Teflon pan, take a good huff, wait a few hours and post that comment again. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymer_fume_fever ”When PTFE is heated above 450 °C the pyrolysis products are different and inhalation may cause acute lung injury. Symptoms are flu-like (chills, headaches and fevers) with chest tightness and mild cough. Onset occurs about 4 to 8 hours after exposure to the pyrolysis products of…

> wait a few hours Indeed. When was the last time you left your nonstick pan sitting on a cooktop with nothing in it, for hours? If you're the kind of person to leave empty pans burning for that long, I'd be more worried about cognitive decline and/or the risk you'll die in a fire of your own making.

You only have to huff it for a few seconds, and then turn off the heat. The symptoms are what shows up hours later.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#787

Post by foobarian »

azinman2 wrote: post #578
foobarian wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use cast iron for everything I possibly can, but there is one use case I still need non-stick pans for: frying eggs. The only way to get them to not stick in even the best seasoned cast iron pan is copious amounts of oil, which seems like it's probably worse than a few molecules of PTFE derivates.

I’m guessing your cast iron pan isn’t polished. If it is, you can get it to be non stick. Stainless steel also works very well. You just need to preheat it to get the Leidenfrost effect.

I did actually polish this one, and to be fair it works mostly OK in that I'm not scraping the eggs off with a metal spatula, but it still sticks enough to be annoying, and for a teflon pot to be a measurably superior solution.

I haven't played much with preheating though, I'll have to try that - thanks for the suggestion :-)

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#788

Post by thumbsup-_- »

Years back I took a "common sense" decision to eliminate plastic from my food storage and cooking and only use steel or glass. The basis for this decision was primarily that there have been many instances in world where after decades it was found that something generally used was harmful for humans. Steel and glass have existed longer than plastics and are generally known to be safe (also I have to use some products, can't leave everything).

for people arguing about the quality of research, yes you can argue on research but use your common sense and ask yourself if plastics are really safe?

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#789

Post by genuinelydang »

timr wrote: post #718
genuinelydang wrote: post #699

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Overheat your Teflon pan, take a good huff, wait a few hours and post that comment again. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymer_fume_fever ”When PTFE is heated above 450 °C the pyrolysis products are different and inhalation may cause acute lung injury. Symptoms are flu-like (chills, headaches and fevers) with chest tightness and mild cough. Onset occurs about 4 to 8 hours after exposure to the pyrolysis products of…

> wait a few hours Indeed. When was the last time you left your nonstick pan sitting on a cooktop with nothing in it, for hours? If you're the kind of person to leave empty pans burning for that long, I'd be more worried about cognitive decline and/or the risk you'll die in a fire of your own making.

That level of intentional misunderstanding just confirms my suspicion of damage control efforts at play in this thread.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#790

Post by genuinelydang »

justjash wrote: post #721
genuinelydang wrote: post #699

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Overheat your Teflon pan, take a good huff, wait a few hours and post that comment again. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymer_fume_fever ”When PTFE is heated above 450 °C the pyrolysis products are different and inhalation may cause acute lung injury. Symptoms are flu-like (chills, headaches and fevers) with chest tightness and mild cough. Onset occurs about 4 to 8 hours after exposure to the pyrolysis products of…

Who is really heating teflon pans to 850 F on the stovetop?

Teflon starts to degrade at 260 degrees Celsius / 500 F. That’s within steak searing temperatures.
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