Hell! I am an avid gastropig and amateur cook. In the past years I have tried everything under the sun and have yet to find any non stick cookware that truly lasts. Going with All Clad stainless or a well seasoned cast iron pan will give you better results every time and they will last until you are nothing but plant food!
If you put enough oil in any pan and crank the heat, it becomes no-stick. But Teflon and the like have their purpose and perform better than stainless for certain tasks. Some cooks I know may argue this point, but that’s an entirely different thread.
Exactly. Non-sticks are great for eggs, stainless pretty much sucks for them. Stainless/cast is great for meat. Porcelain coated pots like Le Creuset are great for braising dishes. I use all of the above, including a cast iron pizza pan. Of course, a cheap pan will not give good results in most cases, especially for stainless; doesn’t have to be expensive, but needs a good heavy bottom to prevent warping and burning.
All of the nonstick pans that I have bought have served their purposes well and they were cheap. I only use them for frying potatoes or eggs.
Years ago I picked up a big Cuisinart non-stick skillet at Tuesday Morning, which is a kind of odd lots place with cheap pricing. I have used and abused that pan for wow, over 8 years, and it’s wonderful. It’s heavy enough not to warp, I can sear something and finish it in a high oven and it’s just keeps working beautifully. I think I paid $20 for it, with the thought that “oh well, it’s cheap enough that when it craps out, I don’t really care all that much.”
I see them now on Overstock, and other places, maybe try one and see what you think of it? I can attest to their durability.
Scanpans hold up pretty well.
Thank you all for the advice. I looked at many of the products mentioned here, and ended up going with a plain ol’ cast iron pan. I wanted something that lasts and doesn’t utilize questionable coatings*. I’ll keep it seasoned with flaxseed oil. It also helped that the product had a 5-star Amazon rating over 880 reviews.
*A lot of the coatings are scary, proprietary things with no clear chemical composition. If they won’t tell me what it’s made of, well, it’s probably for a good reason. I almost got the Ozeri Stone Earth Pan, but upon further reading, apparently it’s just Teflon minus the glue and then re-marketed to a green audience. I don’t think I’d trust that company anymore, and most of the others don’t seem to be any more forthcoming with the science. Iron and oil still seems the safest.
It’s all polytetrafluoroethylene. Aka Teflon.
Another choice, similar to cast iron, is a carbon steel pan such as De Buyer. When seasoned, they are slick enough for eggs, they’re pretty tough like cast iron but lighter and offer more traditional frying pan designs.
Still not as low effort as teflon, but I’ve had good luck with them.
Just realize that if you don’t cook often, your new cast iron will rust - seasoned or not. You have to refresh the coating on it frequently (at least weekly in my summer climate, less often in winter) and most of us do that by cooking with it often.
Cast iron pans *are *“nonstick coated,” with a polymerized and plasticized coating made from oils. The difference is that it doesn’t (generally, there are exceptions) come from the store with that layer applied; you have to supply the nonstick coating by seasoning it. And you’ve got to reinforce that layer regularly or oxygen will get through and rust the iron. Cooking with oils in it reinforces that coating. People like cast iron because it’s low maintenance, but it’s only low maintenance if you’re *using *it frequently. The older and better seasoned the pan, the less frequently you have to use it…this means the front end of cast iron ownership is pretty high maintenance, but it gets less so over time. (The lowest maintenance cast iron pan is the ugly blackened gross looking used one you get at a flea market or garage sale.)
If it does rust, it’s not the end of the pan - just get some fine grit sandpaper, sand off the rust and then reseason and start again.
Sure. Easy for you to say.
You do have to be careful buying a non-stick pan that is too cheep. You do want some weight or heat evening out construction. I got a real cheap pan once, and you could watch my sunny-side-up egg getting cooked in the shape of the coils of the electric element, but not between them.
That’s one of the reasons I really like the one I linked to above. It’s very solid stainless steel with about a 1/4" thick solid disk on the bottom.
As has been said repeatedly on this message board: if a person is too dumb to read the instructions for use (not directed at you personally), then all bets are off. If someone misuses a bandsaw and lops off a finger, it’s not the tool’s fault. Non-stick coatings are not a problem if you keep the heat down and use proper utensils. If they get scratched, they should be discarded.
I bought everything separately because they don’t come in a set.
I wasn’t fond of the t-fal after a roommate used forks to stir everything in them. i didn’t notice till it was way too late.:mad:
12x1in Carbon Steel pan for general frying with oils, flippable edges (so you can like flip stuff over).
12x2in Cast Iron pan for deep frying and baking, oven proof.
10x6in Stainless Steel pot for Acid based stuff, sauce.
12x12in Aluminum pot for steaming.
These are just a few specific things for a general idea where nonstick isnt really the best tool for the job.
My other pot n pans are those general purpose teflon coated scratch magnets.
All-Clad is truly terrific stuff - we have a big set at home.
But there are definitely times and dishes that benefit from a non-stick frying pan or skillet, and for my money, the best value non-stick pans are the professional ones you can buy at a restaurant supply store or at Sam’s club (Bakers and Chefs brand).
http://www.acemart.com/prod4820.html (for example)
They’re heavy aluminum with sturdy handles and a thick non-stick coating that lasts a pretty long time. They’re cheap enough that if you thrash them accidentally, you’re not too pissed, like you would be had you bought All-Clad non-stick pans that cost 3x as much.
Don’t bother with those green pans; their non-stickiness is due to some sort of silicone coating that eventually wears/washes off, and then everything sticks like hell. Before that point, they’re terrific, but it doesn’t take long for that coating to wear off.
Just read this a few months ago; what he actually said was buy the best pan you can afford and never wash it.
I’m assuming he means, with soap. Certainly never in a dishwasher.
Thanks for answering my next question. I received a new cast iron skillet just last week, seasoned it and have so far used it once (fried chicken wipes out of it effortlessly). I’m breaking it out again today for some more fried chicken, and I was wondering if it would hurt to just season it again. Looks like that is recommended, thanks again.
I guess I am a pan magnet these days. Besides the cast iron, from someone else we also received some Paula Deen Ceramic Non-Stick Skillets. They’re not as high-tech as some of the things mentioned in this thread, but I have to report that they’ve been good for frying eggs, sauteeing this and that… and for me, you can’t beat the price (free).
Wouldn’t hurt a bit - you cannot overseason a cast iron pan, to the best of my knowledge. It may or may not be necessary, but it shouldn’t hurt.
When you’re done with that chicken, pour out all the cooking oil you can, scrape out any blackened bits with a spatula and then wipe it well with a paper towel (I like Viva’s new textured paper towels for this, they’re sturdy, absorbent and scrubby) and then with that same grease soaked paper towel, wipe down the outside. Give it a brief rinse in running water if you must for your peace of mind, but you probably don’t need to. If you do use water, NO SOAP. Put the damp pan back on the burner for a few minutes over a low/medium heat to evaporate off all the water, or stick it in your hot oven for a few minutes - you’ve got your oven on for the biscuits you must have made with your fried chicken, right? 
Doing these little “mini-seasonings” every time you use your pan builds up a sturdy multilayered seasoning that would make your grandma proud.