70
The nonstick surface?
Yes! I've tried all the others, ceramic included.. nothing beats cared-for cast iron. Yes, you use more oil. Yes, you've gotta reseason it once every few years.
I always rolled my eyes at the cast iron zealots on Reddit, but with pets in the house, and cooking a lot, it just works.
'but with pets in the house, and cooking a lot, it just works.'
Could you explain this bit please? I'm at a loss to see how this involves my cat.
Edit, I have some cast iron, but my wife can't lift it. And NGL as I age it's getting a bit heavier for me and I can see a point where I'll not be too happy lugging it from cupboard to stove.
I think carbon steel may come to my rescue there - just cannot afford it at the moment. My Christmas list is stuck between a pressure washer and a carbon steel pan that was mentioned on here a short while ago. A German brand.
From one of the manufacturers: https://support.farberwarecookware.com/support/solutions/articles/65000168119-is-nonstick-cookware-harmful-to-my-pets-
Long story short, accidentally burning a PTFE coated pan will release chemicals that are bad for you and your pet. No matter how that manufacturer softballed the answer, it's right there: the fumes of overheated plastic are harmful.
You weigh much more than your pet, so the time it takes for the resulting toxins to approach LD50 for a human are quite long.
Zipping a smaller, faster breathing pet's blood levels up to fatal are unfortunately much easier, almost by an order of magnitude depending on the pet. That article references birds as most sensitive (see: canaries in coal mines), but dogs and such being close to the floor will also get a lot of exposure to the heavy gas particles.
Also, carbon steel, stainless steel. That's right--stainless steel is nonstick if you just use it correctly. You don't need special "non-stick" cookware. We've had it all this time.
stainless steel is nonstick if you just use it correctly.
Can you explain how to use it correctly?
With pans that have a non-stick coating, you want to add your fat (butter or oil usually) before you heat the pan.
With stainless steel pans, it is the opposite. You want to heat your pan up and then add your fat.
If you do either of those in the wrong order, you'll get food sticking to your pan.
That really covers most people's problems when cooking with stainless steel. They don't wait long enough to have their pan heat up before they add their butter or oil.
They don't wait long enough to have their pan heat up before they add their butter or oil.
That’s the real problem there. The oil should smoke a little when you add it, that means the pan is hot enough. You can check by flicking some water in the pan; if the water drops bead up and skate around the pan like they’re on ice (Leidenfrost effect), it’s ready. If it immediately fizzles and evaporates it’s not hot enough.
Same principle.
Cast iron, you just do that, too, but more, and it's also to prevent rust.
Honestly, ever since I learned this, I've used my cast iron less.
Pro note: scientists are finding that oil smoke is wayyyyy worse than we previously thought. Get a really good hood and turn it on. Like farts, if you can smell it, you're breathing it.
tl;dr: silicone with little tiny PFAS tips. Supposedly the single molecule is safer than the long chains in Teflon.
You’re going to make me read the article aren’t you…..
Fine.
Ok I read it. This is…. A reasonable tldr. I was hoping for more on the manufacturing. As I understood it, the real issue with teflon was the manufacturing, and the resulting product was largely not a big deal, the molecules are too big for our body’s to do much with
I thought teflon being long is what made it safe. It's the smaller molecules used in the process of making the long Teflon that are bad.
A little column A, a little column B. The problem isn't really the length of the molecules, but the carbon fluorine bonds in it. Those are what make them so stable and why this compound class is used at all.
Bigger molecules are not so easy to get through your cell membranes, which is why they argue that they are safer. Problem is, that over time they do kinda break down into smaller molecules. So over longer time frame they release unsafe molecules in small amounts.
Shorter fluorinated compounds are faster going into your cells but also out of them.
Then the question is how much damage do those compounds while in your body? That only time (and studies) will tell.
But honestly? After working on the analytical part of that field for a bit and seeing how the industry bullshitted their way through till now? I don't trust them one bit.
I heard teflon is delicious and nutritious
...until someone figures out what's wrong with it...
“cutting use” in this context meaning “limiting use” rather than “eliminating use”. Great job no notes
this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2025
70 points (98.6% liked)
Science
5024 readers
215 users here now
General discussions about "science" itself
Be sure to also check out these other Fediverse science communities:
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS