Where does the hexclad fall in this regard?
We Tested Nonstick Cookware: Coatings Don't Need to Look Worn to Shed Particles
81–90 of 103 posts
Re: We Tested Nonstick Cookware: Coatings Don't Need to Look Worn to Shed Particles
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's possible apparently. The types described should be harder than over easy. A well seasoned cast iron and butter. https://ask.metafilter.com/376998/Scrambling-eggs-without-no... https://reddit.com/r/cookware/comments/1ove4wy/finally_a_non...
I beg to differ: over-easy is more difficult because the egg whites stick more readily because there's no fat there. And you really can't mess up scrambled eggs. Everyone here seems to drown their over-easy eggs in oil to make them not stick to the pan.
Yeah, cooking without enough oil is not gonna get you far without nonstick no matter what food.
Re: We Tested Nonstick Cookware: Coatings Don't Need to Look Worn to Shed Particles
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
Eggs stick if the pan temperature isn't right or if there's not enough lube. User error or skill issue. Here's how to do it: buy good pans, turn on pan to ~medium, add oil and rub in with cloth, add more oil (or butter, butter is better with eggs), when pan is hot add eggs. This works with good quality (all clad) or heavy (cast iron) pans.
Personal opinion - deep fried eggs are goated. It's either runny scrambled (pretty hard on cast iron/stainless) or deep fried. Anything in-between is incompetence.
Runny scrambled (French omelet) isn't too bad on carbon steel IME. And certainly possible on cast iron, since that was the type of pan used when Carême wrote his cookbook. By Escoffier's time carbon steel was more common. Neither of them is famous for having invented a time machine, both predate non-stick cookware, and they're the most famous French chefs in history.
Re: We Tested Nonstick Cookware: Coatings Don't Need to Look Worn to Shed Particles
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thank you for doing this. The conclusion from the text is: > For consumers who wish to minimize potential exposure to PTFE coating particles, the simplest approach may be to treat nonstick cookware as a specialized tool rather than a default choice. Instead, reach for uncoated cookware, such as stainless steel, cast iron, carbon steel, or glass, whenever practical. If we follow that advice: For which type of food/dis…
> specialized tool Thing is, I don't even have need for this tool. Other for perfect scrambled eggs (creamy french style, that nobody really appreciates so it's a moot) I don't have a need for it. Especially if you upgrade to induction, cast iron + stainless are absolute goats. They are indestructible and zero maintenance. Non brainer. My conclusion for teflon pans existence is the shitty electric cooktops. Replace t…
I do French-style omelets in a carbon steel pan, on an electric cooktop. Mine's an 8.5" omelet pan, perfect for two egg omelets. I treat it a lot like a wok: heat up until a bit of water dropped in shows the Leidenfrost effect, dump out the water, dump in oil, let it smoke for a few seconds, dump out the oil, then reduce heat, add butter, and drop in the (pre-scrambled & strained) eggs & start mixing while moving the pan back & forth. As the eggs start cooking through, begin rolling by folding up the side & back over, once fully rolled slide onto plate.
This takes practice. I made an omelet a day for a bit over a month to get it to the point I could make one perfect every time. The first few were garbage, after about a week I got a decent result, and the rest was just refining my heat control to get it correct reliably.
Re: We Tested Nonstick Cookware: Coatings Don't Need to Look Worn to Shed Particles
#85My observations from experience: - Nonstick helps, but don't use it instead of a fat. - Ceramic works well enough that I'm shocked Teflon nonstick still exists. No reason to risk it. - Use real food. Real butter, real olive for most things, real peanut oil for high temp. - If you don't overeat or or eat junk or indulgences too often, you can eat anything you want, just not every day. - Variety and exploration inheren…
The thing about “ceramic” is that it’s not actually defined or regulated as a term so it could still be some kind of PTFE.
Re: We Tested Nonstick Cookware: Coatings Don't Need to Look Worn to Shed Particles
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the advice is to avoid using it as a daily driver. If you only have nonstick and carbon steel pans, you might not want to cook something acidic in the carbon steel as it will kill the seasoning. If you have nonstick and stainless steel, you can use the SS for that. On the otherhand, cooking eggs in nonstick might be easier/require less fat than working with stainless steel. Nonstick also generally has a lower…
> cooking eggs in nonstick might be easier/require less fat I don't understand why anyone would want to cook eggs with less fat to begin with.
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Re: We Tested Nonstick Cookware: Coatings Don't Need to Look Worn to Shed Particles
#87I’m the founder of RTINGS.com. A few notes about this investigation: - For each piece of cookware, we purchased and tested three separate units - Before taking the “new” measurement, each unit was washed three times with dish soap and rinsed with isopropyl alcohol - Oil blanks and uncoated cookware were included as controls - We did not chemically identify the particles that were released - This investigation measure…
Thank you for doing this. The conclusion from the text is: > For consumers who wish to minimize potential exposure to PTFE coating particles, the simplest approach may be to treat nonstick cookware as a specialized tool rather than a default choice. Instead, reach for uncoated cookware, such as stainless steel, cast iron, carbon steel, or glass, whenever practical. If we follow that advice: For which type of food/dis…
I got a stainless steel skillet out of curiosity after yet another painful experience with nonstick: Bacon grease sticks very well to nonstick and can be almost impossible to clean off. Picked stainless steel after reading about the different types because it seemed to take the least effort to handle and last the longest, turned out really easy to clean after bacon/sausage as well.
Re: We Tested Nonstick Cookware: Coatings Don't Need to Look Worn to Shed Particles
#88My observations from experience: - Nonstick helps, but don't use it instead of a fat. - Ceramic works well enough that I'm shocked Teflon nonstick still exists. No reason to risk it. - Use real food. Real butter, real olive for most things, real peanut oil for high temp. - If you don't overeat or or eat junk or indulgences too often, you can eat anything you want, just not every day. - Variety and exploration inheren…
The thing about “ceramic” is that it’s not actually defined or regulated as a term so it could still be some kind of PTFE.
Sometimes I wonder if we discover that "ceramic" is also bad for health. As I understand it is really not meaningfully defined. And I also think about having heard that it is sometimes sacrificial that is that it wears out... Meaning it might leech something to food.
Re: We Tested Nonstick Cookware: Coatings Don't Need to Look Worn to Shed Particles
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Leidenfrost effect Okay for a steak, not great for eggs!
Maybe not for creamy scrambled eggs, but for most eggs that's entirely doable. Frying: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYpYK1DV_SU Scrambled: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFtkmInrlWw
I want to call something out here so people don't have to click / don't just gloss over it, because his videos are what made me go "hey, wait a minute..."
Most tutorials on stainless steel completely fail to mention turning the heat down or adding oil/butter. If you've been using stainless steel for a while these are probably "well duh" things, but coming from nonstick these were both surprising.
With nonstick, you can just leave the heat at medium the whole time, and usually need to to maintain the heat. The pan heats up a lot slower and doesn't get as hot. And because of the nonstick surface, oil/butter is unnecessary - I never used it the whole time I was on nonstick. But stainless steel heats up a lot better, so leaving it at medium it'll just keep heating up and burn your food (mentioned in the video), and the leidenfrost effect doesn't really work on some substances without oil/butter to act as an intermediary (I couldn't explain the physics of it, just that my pancake batter was burned to the skillet on one side and liquid on the other - it was so extreme I was concerned I just couldn't make pancakes with it, while adding butter the next attempt was like magic).
Scrolling around the comments here on HN, a lot of people are mentioning how good stainless steel can be at not sticking, in a thread about nonstick surfaces, without mentioning any of the additional steps.
Re: We Tested Nonstick Cookware: Coatings Don't Need to Look Worn to Shed Particles
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
The cast iron is a pain to maintain though
I wash mine after use. Most frequent task: scrambling eggs. Also baking (bread, rolls, pizza), frying, saute. Wash: a few drops of detergent and hot water immediately after cooking. Let sit while I eat. Scrub out with a brush, invert to dry. Wipe with oil (I prefer flax, there are many other options). Store on lower oven rack when not in use, inverted. Seasons whilst baking generally. Once a month or two, or when the…
Ok but you described a lot of work for a pan that gets used 3 times a day (in terms of time).
I do have a cast iron,but we prefer the stainless steel because of how much work is the cast iron.