Do Freepers think that teflon is carcinogenic?

[Jeff Chandler]

I only use non stick for cooking eggs mostly. Buy good regular cook wear for most cooking and learn how to use it
 
You can use good cast iron skillets and they won’t stick if you season them well.

I couldn't have said it any better.

Cast iron is great at distributing heat evenly, and you can pass it down to your children. Lodge brand is good because it has a short handle opposite the large handle so you can pick those porkers up with two hands. Mrs. Chandler grills chicken breasts on both sides in her cast iron grill pan then sticks the pan in the oven to finish roasting the chicken. I swear they taste like they were grilled over a flame.

For those that don't know: The trick to keeping it seasoned is to avoid soap. Immerse it in hot water immediately and use a stiff brush to clean it. Dry it thoroughly and store it in the oven. Once you get the hang of it it's almost as easy to clean as teflon.

Stainless steel is great if is laminated with aluminum and/or copper to enhance heat distribution and it's better for acidic foods. Stainless goes right in the dishwasher.

Bottom line: Non-stick for eggs, regular cook wear for everything else.

[Nateman]

You didn’t really think Freepers would fail your chemistry test did you? By the way I think the Florine-Carbon bonds are so tight they make Teflon essentially chemically inert. I figure very high heat releases the Florine which is quite toxic, hence the dead birds.

[Jeff Chandler]

I love teflon, especially for eggs, omelettes, and fish.

Eggs, yes, but when we fry or saute fish we use oil so teflon is not necessary. For oil free, we bake fish on stone wear. Stone wear ROCKS!

[Erasmus]

Before consumer use, it was reportedly used during atomic bomb development as a gasket for the piping in uranium separation plants. Uranium hexaflouride, appropriately nicknamed, ‘hex,’ is among the nastiest, most corrosive gases on earth.

[umbagi]

Wow.

Any of you folks chatters over at the WVEC Eagle Cam site? This subject was discussed there just yesterday, when it was posted that the tracker harness used for some of the young eagles was Teflon...

For those interested, the cam is at WVEC Eagle Cam. It's worth a look.

[Jeff Chandler]

When I used to cook for a large extended family, I would use a large teflon frying pan for omelets. I would mix a dozen eggs with milk salt and pepper in a blender. Half the mix went into the pan, covered, and gently heated until just barely firm. I would slide the big egg disk onto a plate which I stuck in a 140 degree oven. Then I repeated the action with the rest of the mix.

When the second batch was firm, I would sprinkle the omelet fixings on the omelet in the pan, and place the first one inverted onto the second one, heating the whole thing in the pan until the cheese melted. (The browned sides were now on the outside-top and bottom.)

Then I slid the whole thing onto the cutting board and sliced it like a pizza.

That would have been hard to do without teflon.

[Erasmus]

There was a great joke in the Scouts magazine Boy's Life back in the 1950's.

Cub scout at camp: "Hey, try some of my stuff. I made up some corned beef hash and some peach cobbler."

Counselor, pointing: "And, this, is the peach cobbler?"

[backhoe]

I love cast iron and happy to support the American manufacturer, Lodge.

Dittoes regarding the ironware...

I like to cook what I call a "real" breakfast-- brown toast, fry bacon, and cook eggs in the bacon fat...
( Health fanatics be advised- my Mom & Dad ate like that and lived into their eighties and nineties... and yeah, they smoked as well... )

...but my round skillet- a Lodge-- was not quite big enough to comfortably cook all that stuff.

Looked locally, and found an aluminum pan big enough, but, besides being teflon coated, it had a red center that supposedly turned colors when the temp was right for frying.

I pondered what sort on chemical engineering wizardry was involved in making that work, and decided I didn't want that going into my belly...

Got one of these from Lodge:

and am well pleased with it. Plenty of room for the bacon press, and more.

[Vendome]

Inconceivable!

[NTHockey]

When the Freon scare was all the rage, DuPont was forced to change its whole process for making Teflon. Physical characteristics of Teflon have been well publicized since the 1950’s. Cyclic compounds (benzene, toluene, zylene) and compounds containing lead are usually carcinogenic.

If the EPA is so worried about the supposed carcinogenic effects of Teflon, why don’t they stop the addition of KNOWN carcinogens (like benzene and other additives that replaced TEL)?

[bmwcyle]

No

[SupplySider]

The Lodge website: http://www.lodgemfg.com/ - you can buy most of their product on Amazon. I have 4-5 of their cast iron skillets.

I have their 15" cast iron pizza pan. It is awesome. The crust is superior to a pizza stone, a bit crispy on the outside and soft inside. It doesn't stick even if you don't spray oil on the pan. You can roll out dough right into the pan, and you don't need soap to clean up.

[norwaypinesavage]

"Fiddle"

WRONG!!! It's Griddle.

[mad_as_he$$]

I say why risk it? Overheating Teflon releases some nasty stuff, go with anodized alum.

[Jonah Hex]

WRONG!!! It's Griddle.

Does that mean Nero griddled while Rome burned?

(just some Fryday copy/pasta humor)

[norwaypinesavage]

"Does that mean Nero griddled while Rome burned?"

That certainly would explain the historical reporting error: They didn't even HAVE fiddles in Nero's time.

[garyhope]

I’ve inherited some cast iron from my mom, bought some on my own and have a whole bunch of All Clad pots and pans I’ve bought on my own, mostly at discount or big discounts.

I have a nice cast iron griddle pan that I bought cheap that’s round and flat. Great for heating tortillas.

My last 12” All Clad skillet was not as good as my older All Clad. I think it’s not as thick as the older ones or cooks as well.

There are some good Belgian cookware Demeyere that is real good, real thick, but God awful expensive. If I win the lottery, I’ll buy one of their skillets. It’s here:

http://www.surlatable.com/nav/i/category/cookware/skillets/demeyere+atlantis+pro+skillet/*/brand/demeyere/n/4294967002.do?sortby=ourPicks

[garyhope]

And a P.S.,

The method of searing in the skillet stovetop and then putting it in the oven to finish is a great technique. It works for salmon also. With salmon you don’t have to sear both sides though.

Always remember to use a hot pad when taking it out of the oven though. There were a couple of times when I didn’t. Ouch! I’m kinda clumsy or absent minded sometimes believe it or not.

[MHGinTN]

Two iron skillets--one atop the other--can make a dutch oven in a pinch. But the best have a concave lid to receive the hot coals for cooking.

With my mother's biscuits, the bottoms were always more crispy than the tops or fluffy middles because she placed the bottom of the oven in the coals then placed the dough rounds into the heating bottom and added the lid then ladled coals atop. We used the bottoms of her biscuits for gravy sopping or as sandwich pieces for ham, to go in lunch boxes. She made little cakes in the dutch oven on rare occasions, for strawberry or blackberry shortcakes. Until you have an apple cobbler cooked in a dutch oven, you haven't experience the full glory of the 'right into the coals of the fire, caste iron dutch oven'. We had fire pokers which doubled as lifter levers for the lid of the dutch oven and grabbers/lifters for the pot on the boom arm.

[MHGinTN]

I'm making apone tonight, to go with the ‘all-day’ stew I cooked yesterday. Cold cornbread and sweet buttermilk is still a dessert to me. Have you ever make your cornbread with a quarter cup of sweet corn relish in the mix? ... or chopped jalapenos? I also like to make a pone occasionally with basil and garlic in it. When the butter hits the hot fluffy center, the taste is ... well it's ethereal.