This past weekend, my wife and I bought a decent set of stainless steel cookware. I like the appearance of stainless cookware, but I would much rather have a non-stick surface,like Silverstone, to cook on. My wife wanted all-stainless cookware because she had concerns about the Silverstone surface wearing out and contaminating the food. I basically told her that whatever particles broke free of the cooking surface would probably pass harmlessly through the digestive system and that she probably had more to worry about in using uncoated aluminum cookware.
My question is this: was I basically correct in my assumption that a few particles of Silverstone are pretty much harmless if ingested? We’re not talking about peeling the stuff off of the pan in long ribbons and eating it in marinara sauce.
Also, which type of cookware do you prefer and why?
“It’s only common sense,
There are no accidents 'round here.”
I remember seeing something many years ago where the folks at Silverstone claimed that their surface coating was non toxic. There was some question as to whether this was true of all non stick materials being used on cookware. I’m sure it’s all safe now.
Personally I prefer stainless. It is pretty resistive to foods sticking without benefit of any special coatings. We’ve had a set of stainless cookware for the last 8 years and it still looks as good as when we first bought it. Prior to that we had been using teflon coated cookware and replacing it every couple of years. We’ve only had one accident with our stainless where we overcooked something and all we had to do was let it sit overnight in the sink soaking in hot water and it cleaned up as normal. The bottom line is that teflon is going to peal, no matter how careful you are. Once that starts to happen, your food sticks worse…
One of the other reasons we leaned towards stainless is that we have a pet cockatiel. While doing some reading about health hazards for bird, we came across several articles that mentioned that fumes from overheated non-stick cookware were deadly to birds. We didn’t want to take the chance of killing our bird just because we forgot to watch a skillet that was preheating. Not to mention that the fumes probably weren’t too healthy for us either.
“It’s only common sense,
There are no accidents 'round here.”
In my second sentence, I meant to write “health hazards for birds”, not “health hazards for bird”. We need to have a telethon to wipe out Typo Disease. I’ll handle the money (in Aruba) and everybody else can handle the phones…
“It’s only common sense,
There are no accidents 'round here.”
When using non-stick cookware, make sure to use only wooden spoons and spatulas, or those coated with the same sort of non-stickum. Never metal. And wash 'em by hand, with a non-abrasive soap and a soft sponge…not in the dishwasher.
That should keep you from whacking off great chunks of Silverstone over the years.
I use All-Clad cookware, which is wonderful stuff, though expensive. After close to twenty years of cooking daily with garbage pots and pans, I felt the expense was justified.
I have a couple of the All-Clad non-stick skillets, which work very well, but the ones with plain stainless-steel insides don’t have sticking problems either. I use a plain 7-inch skillet for eggs and omelettes, and never have a problem. Plus, it sticks when you WANT it to, like when you’re browning meat for a stew and plan to deglaze the pan.
Phazyme and Mylicon (anti-gas agents) are just a silicone suspension for oral use. They claim to be harmless because they pass through the body without reacting with anything. Flakes of non-stick should also not react, but might be the type of thing to end up in your appendix or block your bile duct, if that’s even possible from the drain-end. MajorMD?
We got non-stick Calphalon cookware for “free” by spending a mint using our Visa card and love it compared to our (very thin) stainless set. The thicker aluminum conducts heat much better, so fewer hot spots (actually, none at all!), and the non-stick has proven very durable. Also, the non-stick surface is textured, which is supposed to allow it to retain most of its non-stickiness (?) even if damaged somewhat. Circulon has taken this to an extreme, with texture ridges so sharp-edged that they seem guaranteed to lose their coating.
Hard-anodizing (which is the way Calphalon leaves the exterior surfaces) creates a layer of aluminum oxide tougher than stainless steel. The professional-grade cookware uses this hard-anodized layer even on the cook surface, where it should (based on the way things sorta stick to the outside of my pans) act like Ike’s stainless set: it sticks a bit when you want it to, but is easy to clean up.
Really expensive clad cookware (with a thick disk of copper sandwiched in the stainless) has few hot spots, but weighs a ton. All told, I think the thick (nearly 3/16") aluminum in the coating of your choice is my favorite tradeoff of even cooking versus weight. As far as general care, though, stainless has it hands down. It’s a bitch hand washing all those pots and pans just because the dishwasher will eat the anodizing.
Sure, I’m all for moderation – as long as it’s not excessive.
As for your concerns about Teflon poisoning, forget it. Anything that regularly comes in contact with food is going to have a pretty significant body of research behind it.
I’m actually a rather competent cook, but from time to time, on purpose or by accident, I cook with high heat. I like stainless steel cookwear because I can be a little rough with it when I get the tough spots out. Can’t do that with non-stick. For roasting, I use cast iron.
The professional and commercial Calphalon with the anodized cook surface is more non-stick than you might think and is not a cleanup problem if you don’t use things like cooking spray. I did cooking spray on a fajita pan I use for omelettes and now the residue won’t come off with anything that won’t also destroy the anodizing. I have a anodized stir fry pan that just gets a wipe of olive oil and that has never been a problem to clean.
Padeye:
Cool. I’ve been considering getting some of the commercial stuff (gawd, it’s expensive!) but had no real testimonials till now. My small omelette pan has stuff on the underside that won’t come off, but it’s a textureless stain. I can live with it, I guess. How about tomatoe sauces and such? Do they stain the anodizing?
Another neat cookware surface I’ve seen is ScanPan, which comes with a stainless steel scouring pad for cleaning. It looks in pix like it’s golden in color, as if it’s TiN coated. No idea how well it works, but at least then it would match my drillbits…
Thanks for all the comments and tips, guys! It’s very much appreciated. Here’s a tip that may work for those of you that may have highly-resistant grease coatings on the outside of pans. Try lightly spraying the gunked up area with a little bit of Castrol SuperClean cleaner/degreaser and let it penetrate for a few minutes. Wipe off with a paper towel and clean thoroughly with ordinary dish soap and water. You may have to do this a couple of times to get the really tough grease deposits. I think that this also might be safe to do on the interiors of non-stick pans, but I’ve not tried that yet. Could be handy for that nasty sludge you get from using some cooking sprays.
“It’s only common sense,
There are no accidents 'round here.”
We have had good luck with the Cooks Essenentials line that QVC hawks…it’s stainless steel coated with a non stick dupont coating that is metal utensil safe…
Reasonably priced compare to Calphalon…looks good on a pot rack also…
Sure, when …
“OINK FLAP OINK FLAP”
----well I’ll be damned!
I’ve never had a problem with tomatoes or acidic foods, just baked on oil residue when I didn’t follow the instructions and used cooking spray. If it was a steel or iron pan I could quickly remove the residue with oven cleaner but a base that strong would probably eat through the anodizing and aluminum in a matter of seconds. Seriously, never let a strong base touch aluminum unless you want to etch the metal. Cleansers and the most abrasive scouring pads I’ve used haven’t harmed the anodizing. It’s not cheap but I plan on expanding my set. FWIW mine is the standard commercial Calphalon without nonstick coating.
My wife likes her Visions cookware because, being glass, it’s non-reactive to acids. Good when you’re simmering something acidic, like tomato sauce.
I’ve lately been having second thoughts as to how non-reactive it is, since leaded glass can leach lead into liquor stored in it. I have no idea what other materials they add to the glass during manufacturing.
As an aside, I originally bought Visions ten years ago (when I was alone and single) because of the TV ads showing another pan melting in a Visions pot.
I think the strong and weak points of the commercial Calphalon are the metal handles. Neat being able to stick them in the oven, but a pain not being able to bare-hand them. I guess a few silicone handle covers would do, but it’s still annoying.
We also bought Visions 10 years ago, but boy does stuff stick and scorch! Hot handles are a problem with it, also. Wouldn’t worry about lead, since only the lids are glass (Pyrex). The pots and pans themselves are a glass/ceramic without AFI any metallic constituents.
All-Clad’s better than Calphalon when it comes to handles not heating up, or heating up quite as fast. I can usually grab them when I’m doing stovetop cooking. You still have the sticking-in-the-oven problem, though.
Right next to the potholders at the housewares store, though, you’ll see those neat little mittens you can slip over the hendle when it’s time to pull it out of the oven.
Cast-iron pans are a dietary source of iron, go in the oven, have no hot spots, become non-stick with proper care AND you can pick em up at yard sales for a buck. Screw Calphalon, that’s what I say.
Forgive the slight hijack here, but has anyone used both All-Clad and the Cuisinart 18/10 stainless cookware? I’ve coveted All-Clad for some time now, but am married to an extremely frugal woman who loathes cooking herself, so convincing her that I need to replace our functional but mediocre pans with a set that’s gonna cost more than our last vacation (with two small kids you don’t go far or spend much on fancy restaurants and such) is a tough sell. The Cuisinart looks good and has much the same heft as the All-Clad, so I’ve wondered whether it might make a reasonable compromise.
I do have a couple of pieces of Calphalon that were gifts, but from my experience with other people’s stuff I prefer stainless to hard-anodized aluminum.
“Ain’t no man can avoid being born average, but there ain’t no man got to be common.” –Satchel Paige
