Join the discussion
Write your take first — we'll ask for email only when you're ready to publish.
- Hacker News
- Coincidentally just saw an ad for this https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/barecookware/everpan
Not affiliated in any way.
But looks promising
- Not really useful. Others have made titanium coated stuff, and it's not really significantly better for non-stick than just a nitrated steel pan.by Kirby64
- I wonder how this compares to this new "no coating" nonstick they are hyping up: https://fromourplace.com/blogs/care-use/a-new-kind-of-nonsti...
- It's worse. Non-stick PTFE is basically always the best. All these alternative "non-stick" coatings want you to use a little bit of oil. PTFE needs 0 oil to work.by Kirby64
- When I was a teenager, I saw a commercial for Visions Cookware
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visions_(cookware)
I got really excited and I purchased a complete set for my mother on her birthday.
And she took one look and was unable to share my enthusiasm. She said it was all completely different from the vessels she normally used, and so it was a rubbish gift, and she stashed them all in a drawer, and never used them at all.
- Looking at alternatives (and I already have both cast-iron and aluminium fry pans which I prefer using), what are people's experiences with ceramic cookware?
I've started seeing these, suspect it's relatively non-stick, should be metabolically benign, but also hear that surfaces are subject to scratching and chipping. (Our storage situation is ... less than ideal.) Prices seem somewhat spendy, but doable.
(And I see <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49071016> immediately on submitting this ;-)
by dredmorbius - I have a greenpan it works well enough although it degrades in nonstick over the years. The only thing I need it for is unbrowned eggs. And those are some of the hardest things for non-stick.
If you cook properly at the right temperatures, you will be better off with stainless or cast iron because they will give better browning. So nonstick is effectively used as a crutch by most cooks to allow them to cook at a temperature which will make their food worse, or forgoe fat which I didn't even consider as an option because it's so foreign to me (the comment you linked reminded me).
Fish is stickyest food ime but it tells you when you've cooked it enough by releasing from the pan so I always use cast iron or stainless for fish.
by Cider9986 - If you're looking to switch, difficulty around cooking technique for stainless steel, carbon steel & cast iron is overblown. Same with seasoning/cleaning the latter two. Trust me, if I can figure it out, you can too.by dfxm12
- Carbon steel is amazing - durable self repairing non-stick surface that after the inital seasoning is trivial to maintain: wash the pan with a brush when its still hot without any detergent - cleans in seconds.
Cast iron is good too but takes longer to heat the pan.
You only have to look in any professional kitchen - they don't use non-stick pans.
by bloke_zero - My 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 inherently limits bad habits.
- Nobody has time to scratch cook every meal. Cook batches and freeze them. If you use occasions when you have time to do this, you'll build up a variety in your freezer that you won't hate anything before you run out of it. OTOH 16 chicken burritos is at least five too many. Trust me.
- All of this is much easier if you're cooking for yourself or for like-minded people.
by Zigurd - 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.
- Isn't Teflon (PTFE) inert biologically?
(the precursor PFOAS are nasty forever chemicals that people should go to jail over dumping them in water, but once they're inert they're inert)
- They are, which is why this pearl clutching over particles from cookware is a bit silly.by this_user
- > Isn't Teflon (PTFE) inert biologically?
Either way, it will be 'bad' forever with some people, like MSG and other things
by bluedino - Supposedly, yes, but other studies have shown that teflon pans continue to off gas after construction for a long time so it’s not just PTFE you have to worry about, but PFOA as well. And in addition, purchasing Teflon pans increases the amount of these chemicals making it into the soil and water streams so it doesn’t really matter how inert they are when they make it into your food, since you’re consuming them other ways and also destroying the environment at the same time!by snowe2010
- I used to switch coated (teflon, ceramic, other fancy gadgets) pans every 1-2 years after eventually wearing them out. This seems so wasteful! I wish somebody had given me the following advice earlier: get 1-2 good uncoated steel pans. They build up a coating from cooking oils that works just as well. I've had mine for over 12 years now, and it's pristine and just a joy to use. I will probably never need another one.by wjakob
- PTFE is not the only way to get "nonstick" cookware.
The amount of stickiness perceived is 99% a skill / procedural issue.
by bob1029 - Indeed I don't see much talk about non-PTFE non-stick: I have a set of enamel pans which work for me just fine, and for the eggs a granite pan (which I have no idea how's actually made). I must say that as nice the cast iron might be when cooking, I didn't like the cleaning part so I ditched them (also the "seasoning" sounded yuck), and for the love of me I couldn't get the stainless steel to not awfully stick.by soco
- Thank you for these tests!
I've recently tossed all my coated pans (my favourite were the Anolon, but those too shed) and moved to stainless steel, save for a cast iron and carbon steel pan.
In the journey here the best I could find was a Hestan nanobond pan, which unfortunately laminated and has shown some pits after few months of use. They refunded me but titaniums isn't yet where stainless steel is.
Now I'm using a mix of Demeyere, De Buyer, and Made In.
It takes a bit of time to get used cooking in them without a ton of fat.
Look up Leidenfrost effect on youtube and you'll learn pretty quickly how to use stainless steel and do not let anything stick even fish.
by ndr - Thanks! I’m getting into cooking and have basic teflon pans (Rachel ray pans given to us by my MIL) and I’m looking to get nice ones and be done with itby ramgine
- > Leidenfrost effect
Okay for a steak, not great for eggs!
by elevation - Rare (but not outlandish) warning - A friend's entire family had ongoing symptoms of fatigue and upset stomach. They ran blood panels and found that everyone had off the charts iron levels. They had switched to cast iron only in the kitchen a few years back, and switching to stainless pans solved the problem.by ortusdux
- If you cook with extra virgin olive oil, having the pan temperature reach the Leidenfrost effect will lead to the oil smoking.by stephenbez
- I don't have any nonstick. It's not that hard to cook anything or to clean stainless or cast iron. For cast iron/carbon steel 99% of the time I run it under water and rub it with my hand and it comes clean in 30 seconds. Rarely I use some soap.
Stainless comes clean easiest right after you use it. Especially if you pour a little water on it while it's still hot. I do occasionally use an SOS on stainless.
There's nothing I'm unable to cook with my pans. I make french omelettes in stainless steel pans and they come out perfect.
by breakyerself - It's much easier with non-stick and I'm not the only one that cooks in my house.by bluedino
- I no longer have any nonstick or cast iron. I almost never manage to clean my cast iron pan in 30 seconds; it’s more like 3–4 minutes. Stainless steel is all I use now. It goes in the dishwasher, so literally two seconds to put it in and two seconds to remove it when the dishwasher is done.by kccqzy
- The only thing that I need a nonstick for is a French omellete or French-style scrambled eggs. Because with stainless steel, carbon steel, or cast iron you need heat in order to prevent sticking.
Apparently it's possible but hard to do in stainless steel:
https://reddit.com/r/cookware/comments/1ove4wy/finally_a_non...
by Cider9986 - if you struggle with sticking it might not be just your pan...
yeah, a good stainless is more than non stick enough for anything. But something that doesn't get enough attention with these kinds of statements is the role of the cooktop.
stainless is easy when you have a cooktop that can maintain the proper temp. that just a hair over "medium" (i havent temped it but i suspect its about 350-375, right around the smoke point of peanut oil)
if your pan is too hot/too cold stuff will stick waaay more (or burn before it would release naturally)
id never been able to get stainless to perform properly on cheap gas burners. heat was too uneven and the hotspots on edges or center would make it not work. no way to get it dialed just right. switching to induction made all the difference. now i can do anything with no fear of sticking.
pan to burner size ratio matters a lot also.
by dgently7 - Cast iron & eggs: if all that's going in are eggs (and fat), I have less clean-up with cast-iron than Teflon.
Heat pan on medium-low, add oil, add slightly-stirred eggs, turn heat off or minimum, mix with a silicone spatula. Perfect eggs in about a minute. The heat retention of the iron transfers at just the right rate to the eggs, the oil (olive, butter, avocado) prevents sticking.
My usual "scramble" has a bunch of ingredients (onions, garlic, sausage, peppers, tomatoes, spinach, seasoning, eggs), and there's more adhesion, but a 10--15 minute soak (whilst eating) hot water + detergent, and a quick scrub, and it's all good.
by dredmorbius - I use all stainless steel now too. When I first got a stainless steel frying pan (a good thick one with some kind of impressive layering system that I’ve long forgotten about) I just assumed that things would stick to it, but I’ve never had any problems that didn’t come off with at most a basic sponge and moderate effort. Mostly food just rinses right off. I’ve had that pan for something like 15 years now. As far as I can tell, non-stick is just a ploy to get people to keep buying new pans as it wears off.