this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2024
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Throw Out Your Black Plastic Spatula (www.theatlantic.com)
submitted 3 weeks ago by rimu@piefed.social to c/health@lemmy.world
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Cooking with any plastic is a dubious enterprise, because heat encourages potentially harmful plastic compounds to migrate out of the polymers and potentially into the food. But, as Andrew Turner, a biochemist at the University of Plymouth recently told me, black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid.

In 2018, Turner published one of the earliest papers positing that black plastic products were likely regularly being made from recycled electronic waste. The clue was the plastic’s concerning levels of flame retardants. In some cases, the mix of chemicals matched the profile of those commonly found in computer and television housing, many of which are treated with flame retardants to prevent them from catching fire.

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[–] cabbage@piefed.social 22 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (16 children)

Do yourself a favour and start using proper cast iron or stainless steel frying pans as well. You gotta learn how to use them, but it's a whole different level. I'm never going back to non-stick.

To get started with a new pan:

  1. Pour a bit of oil in it
  2. Dry it ALL up with a paper towel
  3. Heat up to high temperature, let cool.
  4. Repeat three times or so. This creates a coating of hardened oil.

~~Never, ever, wash with soap. If you do by accident, repeat the above process to coat the pan again.~~ (just don't scrub too violently with soap - I'm being outdated with my advice here)

When cooking:

  1. Heat up pan
  2. Add oil
  3. Add things into pan only when hot
  4. Use water or wine to deglaze when things get a little stuck. That's where you get deliciousness from - it's a feature, not a bug.

I use an old cast iron that's a bit rugged in the bottom for pancakes. It's the most amazing thing ever. I found it in the trash one day. The cast iron allows me to use a steel spatula when it needs to be thin, otherwise I use wood.

[–] almar_quigley@lemmy.world 53 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

You can wash these pans with soap, you just shouldn’t abrade them. Soap isn’t going to remove the molecular bonding unless you’re scrubbing the hell out of it.

Also, Teflon’s a no go but I was under the impression ceramic is ok. Is anything wrong with that coating for cooking?

[–] Prunebutt 16 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

Ceramic loses its' non-stick properties quite fast, cause the coating gets micro-cracked.

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm on year four of using a ceramic pan to cook scrambled eggs in butter at least 4 days a week and it is still pretty slick.

Is it other foods like acidic tomato sauces that mess with the coating?

[–] Prunebutt 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Your coating might be ok for you still, while still having lost a lot of its' non-stickiness.

Usually, you can fry eggs on non-stick pans without butter (even if butter is delicious): can you sill do that?

It's usually not a chemical reaction like what's happening with acidic foods on the coating of a cast iron/carbon steel pan. Ceramics is quite brittle, so mechanical shocks can create micro cracks, which are hard to see but make food stick.

[–] scytale@lemm.ee 2 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah our Fika ceramic pans aren’t that great anymore after 2 years.

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