I have a set of 3 Bra Premiere non-stick frying pans that I’ve used for a while. The coating on them says “Teflon Innovations without PFOA”. Recently I’ve noticed that on the most used pan, the 26cm one, the Teflon coating has started to peel off.
I know that Teflon coatings can release harmful fumes and chemicals if overheated, but what about if the coating is physically peeling? Is it still safe to cook with them? Or should I stop using especially the 26cm one? I don’t want to keep exposing my family to anything dangerous unknowingly. Any advice if these types of pans are still safe to cook with if the nonstick surface is peeling would be appreciated!
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Don’t heat a non-stick on high, like ever. Medium is as high as they can take.
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Use silicon utensils.
We had issues until we stopped doing #1. The cheap non-stick Tfals we have now have lasted 10+ years. The old expensive ones didn’t make it past the first few.
*silicone. You wouldn’t want silicon utensils.
lol. Fair correction.
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What did you do to the poor thing? Looks like you’ve been stabbing it with a fork 24/7 for years. Toss it, and be (a lot) more careful with the next one - or skip nonstick entirely. They already have a finite lifetime when not abused, and if you manage to ruin the coat in one spot that’s a hotspot for “scaling off” more.
Stainless steel can take a beating, though, go nuts.
Cast iron is non-stick and so much easier to clean
Unless of course you want to use a dishwasher. Even manually it really isn’t ‘so much easier to clean’ and you have to spend time seasoning it.
Once you season cast iron you can clean it however you want. Even with soap. The oils you bake on there at such high heat causes polymerization.
You don’t have to continue to season cast iron after cleaning it, unless you’re cleaning it with a fucking angle grinder.
Dishwashers can have some pretty high pressures involved, I wouldn’t be surprised if it can literally chip the seasoning off.
I might be wrong, but I think if your “seasoning” is thick enough to chip off it means you did it wrong and failed to scrub away the excess food residue.
Putting a seasoned cast iron pan in the dishwasher isn’t a great idea, in my experience
I have a cast iron pan that I’ve used for almost 10 years. I seasoned it when I got it. To clean it, I scrub it with steel wool, dry it off then rub a coat of oil on it. It still looks and works perfectly. Cast iron is extremely easy to clean and upkeep.
Yeh,
Scrubbing it with steel wool, drying it and then rubbing in oil doesn’t sound as easy as ‘put in dishwasher’. I couldn’t be doing with that, cooking for a family every day
I cook for a family of four every day and taking 3 minutes to clean my cast iron pan is the least time consuming part of it. You’re being dramatic.
I’m not being dramatic- I just don’t see much benefit from the faff. And I’ve never actually found a well-seasoned cast iron pan that is as non-stick as a non-stick.
… hence the need for the wire wool, I guess.
Oh, my point wasn’t that a cast iron pan is as non-stick as Teflon. I was simply talking about cast iron upkeep. I have a non stick pan and it’s much better for certain things for sure. But I wash it by hand instead of putting it in the dishwasher.
I don’t have any zods but i got some chipped rubies
Afaik you can’t put the non stick in the dishwasher either?
I don’t see why not? They won’t rust in there like cast iron would
Not about rust, but the chemicals in the detergent can harm the coating iirc.
Been doing it for years with no apparent ill effects
Cast iron is nice, I recommended stainless because I assume someone who treats pans like this would ruin cast iron too.
It depends. I ruined my Teflon, but my cast iron is great. Mostly I just hate plastic spatulas.
Cast iron is nearly impossible to “ruin”, the idea that you can is nothing more than a huge circlejerk. Even a completely rust covered cast iron pan can likely be made basically good as new with a little effort.
Obviously restoring your pan every time you wanna use it isn’t practical, so you still wanna take care of it, but actually permanently ruining it? Good luck.
I wasn’t really referring to permanently mangling the iron. Taking care of seasoning is an extra thing, is all, and the seasoning can absolutely be ruined.
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Dump all of your non stick and get cast iron
“Safe” is a relative term. Is it going to set your house on fire? No. Is it going to release harmful gasses while you cook and leech toxic metals into your food and slowly poison you? Yeah, probably. But, like, how old are you? Maybe you’re like 98 years old and don’t have that much longer to live anyway.
Fuck’s smatterchew? Throw that shit out and get a new pan. Damn.
I think generally it’s considered safe apart from the gases, but that’s an issue if you heat it to a much too high of a temperature. And it seems like they make you feel sick but it passes in few hours.
I have never heard anyone manage to get that though. Maybe if you forget the pan on the stove, but then you wouldn’t be standing there breathing the fumes? I dunno
I stopped using non stick pots/pans completely. PFOS or whatever other fucked up, deadly, untested chemicals can get out of my life forever. We may think they’re safe but do we really know? “They” told us the original teflon was safe and look at how that turned out.
I now have an induction range and only use cast iron and stainless steel. Yes, I sometimes have to scrub or soak my pans but I believe me and mine will live longer and healthier.
Cast iron does make better tasting food, IMHO. Takes some getting used to and more work to clean but I think it’s worth it.
“They” is frequently used as an antisemitic dog whistle fyi
There is literally nothing in the post indicating any religion. I interpreted “they” in this case as industry leaders/the FDA
This is correct, thanks.
No idea how someone could think I was being antisemitic from that post yet here we are.
I didn’t think you were being antisemitic, i assumed you were unaware of the way that antisemites use the word
Man, it’s the “ok signs are nazi dog whistles” shit all over. You aren’t, they’re being knee-jerk over reactive.
My guy, “they” is just a pronoun. Not everything can be a dog whistle.
Its specifically when applying emphasis, usually with ((())), but not always. Using the word they on its own is not an issue, but in cases like this its usually better to say who you mean, instead of letting people assume.
Or we can not give quite so much power to single word dog whistles, particularly in cases when there’s no actual anti-Semitic content within the post. It’s like the fuckin OK sign all over.
I think it’s better to take in the whole context, and then you don’t have to assume anything.
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Fuck off Israel propoganda bot.
Beep boop you got me
Wat
Getting rid of Teflon around here too.
I like the process of maintaining cast-iron pans. And they get better theore I use them. Definately better than the constant deterioration of the Teflon ones.
Enamel coated steel is ok. Just steel is ok too.
But I really like the cast iron ones.
I have bare and enameled cast iron and bare stainless steel. I have not heard of enamel coated steel. I need to research that.
It’s not very durable, I don’t recommend it. Inherited it. Fine a a freebee, but I wouldn’t spend money. And if it starts to chip just toss it out.
Pretty sure I do have enamel coated steel for my camp set of dishes. Interesting.
Teflon is very bad for you don’t do it.
No, it’s not safe to keep using nonstick pans that are peeling, but people still use them anyway.
I think it’s safe in that the coating won’t poison you. They should just pass through without harming you. But it’s not a very pleasant idea, so I would get a new pan just for that.
My girlfriend is a materials scientist specialising in non-stick coatings.
The first time she came to my house, I had to throw away all teflon with even a scratch on it. She said once the surface is broken it will leach chemicals into your food.
She said they are perfectly safe whilst the coating is in tact and uses non-stick pans herself. Just replace them as soon as you notice the surface is broken.
Just replace them as soon as you notice the surface is broken.
So like twice a month?
Don’t use metal on your pans maybe?
Replace ‘em. Get either cast iron or stainless steel, once both are seasoned properly they are just as non-stick as teflon pans and much more durable. Lodge cast iron pans are like $20 and are super easy to take care of if you cook frequently.
I don’t think stainless steal seasons. Maybe you’re thinking of carbon steel?
Stainless is great to cook with but you have to wait for the pans to come to temp before adding food
Nothing is nonstick like Teflon … But the VAST majority of cooking doesn’t require that level of nonstick, either.
Unless you have a French omelette addiction, you probably don’t need Teflon.
Throw that shit away ang get an All Clad everyday pan or Staub or something. There will be tons of sales and getting proper cooking equipment is worth the investment
Even bran new nonstick pans are horrible ideas. Don’t use them. Get cast iron.
Everything I heard about cast iron pans was either “This is the hot shit!!” or “They are horrible to maintain and you can’t keep food in them overnight because it destroys the patina you built for weeks”.
Since I am lazy as fuck I’ll pass…
I’m also pretty lazy, but they are a lot less difficult to maintain than most people say. They can take a lot of abuse, and it’s fine to use soap and water on them, including rough sponges. In fact, some companies sell a kind of chain mail you can use to rough up the surface more since it actually helps.
I’ve left food in them overnight many times. The only times it’s hurt the seasoning is if it’s been acidic, like a tomato sauce. But then I just wash it off the next day and oil it again and it’s totally fine, and will build up seasoning naturally with more use.
The only really bad thing you can do is get it wet and forget to dry it. Rust is bad. But then, all that means it you’ll need to remove the rust as best you can and reseason. It isn’t ruined, and you can fix it. Just better and easier to dry it off well.
ATK just did a short video on this. It’s probably not as detailed as you might want but here you go. I believe Teflon is used because it is so innocuous, but the chemicals used underneath to make it stick are very bad for you. https://youtu.be/2RJkIPT-jLs?si=w0X3lpQK9tnaMmbA
From what I understand, that is unsafe. Having said that i’ve been using one in a worse condition too. Best to limit the use of non stick pans anyways unless its for eggs or smth delicate pl us careful with the wash
