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.

    • @uienia
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      130 minutes ago

      No, but they do make them in metal.

  • andyburke
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    5411 hours ago

    Plastic and food shouldn’t mix.

    We fucked up real bad. Gonna be a long road to fix this shit.

    • @Maggoty
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      144 minutes ago

      The new thing is PFAS in the food chain. We’re fucking it up faster than we’re fixing it. Almost like profit motivation was a bad idea.

      • @Red_October
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        317 minutes ago

        Food should never touch anything artificial. If it hasn’t been levitating since the day it was hand harvested from old growth forest, it’s basically pure poison.

      • sunzu2
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        2010 hours ago

        metal is best shit we got, mate.

        stainless steel is OG all purpose.

        cast iron is best for some use cases.

        enabled cast iron is niche for the more elite chef.

        anything is else is trash but willing to hear suggestions.

      • DarkThoughts
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        410 hours ago

        This is very specific since he even build up a little rice tower pressing up against the foil.

        • @[email protected]
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          44 minutes ago

          Well, you need wet food, metal and another metal all touching each other for this to happen. I’ve seen my sister make the mistake IRL so it certainly does.

          • DarkThoughts
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            110 hours ago

            How did she manage to do it? I usually only see people use this example for topping half eaten pots, which means the amount of food in them should be far away from the aluminium foil.

            • @grue
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              24 hours ago

              What kind of utter madman both (a) doesn’t have matching lids for his pots and also (b) refuses to take the leftovers out of a pot (which is a vessel for cooking, not storage) and put them into a more appropriate container?

  • bizarroland
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    3011 hours ago

    Also, if you have a cast iron pan that is extremely rusted, get a brass bristle drill attachment and blast all the rust off with it.

    After you have finished that and cleaned it, season it like the other poster mentioned and it will be as smooth as almost any Teflon you’ve ever used.

    • @athairmor
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      1110 hours ago

      Geez, I hope people aren’t out there using rusted cast iron. That’s beyond ignorant.

      • @[email protected]
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        123 minutes ago

        I’m ignorant. Tell me what’s the problem with rust? I thought iron oxide is a fairly stable compound.

      • bizarroland
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        1710 hours ago

        I have found cast iron pans in the trash that were trashed because they were Rusty. Cleaning them, de-rusting them, and reseasoning them was enough to put them back into service and they are some of my favorite cast iron.

      • sunzu2
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        110 hours ago

        excess iron can be dangerous but how can anyone cook without fat… unless they wash it heavy duty soap every time.

        • @somethingsnappy
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          610 hours ago

          My brother in law (a chemist) just soaps up his cast irons. He uses them every day and cleans them fairly soon after use. They look like pans you see in a magazine ad. Perfect.

            • @grue
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              4 hours ago

              Weak soap.

              The whole “don’t wash cast iron with soap” advice is old – so old, in fact, that it was from back when everybody used lye soap.

  • cabbage
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    2 hours ago

    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
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      5012 hours ago

      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?

      • cabbage
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        12 hours ago

        Thanks - apparently modern soap is much milder on the seasoning, so it’s not really a problem any more. I’ve never thought to question the advice that was passed down the generations. :)

        Nothing wrong with ceramic from a food safety perspective. I love it in my cast iron pot, not sure I would go for it in a frying pan.

      • @grue
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        14 hours ago

        I was under the impression ceramic is ok. Is anything wrong with that coating for cooking?

        Only that you shouldn’t expect it to actually be non-stick, LOL. Personally, I don’t see the point of it and consider it inferior to cast iron, carbon steel, enameled cast iron, or stainless-clad aluminum.

        • edric
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          27 hours ago

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

        • snooggums
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          59 hours ago

          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?

          • @[email protected]
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            11 hour ago

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

            Usually, you gan 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 makes food stick.

    • @athairmor
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      810 hours ago

      A new cast iron pan should be washed with soap and water. They’re usually coated with something you don’t want to be eating to keep them from rusting from the factory to your home. You scrub that off and then season it.

      • cabbage
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        23 hours ago

        Huh, good to know - I’ve only ever used old ones. They always clean off pretty easy with just water and a firm dish brush.

        After Googling a bit, it turns out dish soaps were much more powerful in the past, which is why old people always say not to use dish soap in a pan. Newer soaps are generally milder and won’t damage the seasoning. It never occurred to me to question it. Thanks!

        I’ll probably keep going without soap though, but it’s nice to know I can be a little less fanatic about it. :)

    • @theunknownmuncher
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      11 hours ago

      I wash my cast iron with dish soap after every use and I can still slide eggs around in the pan. Definitely agree, though. I only have 1 non-stick pan that I almost never use. Stainless steel and cast iron are really the only 2 types that you need

      • @grue
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        14 hours ago

        Enameled cast iron (which IMO is different enough from regular cast iron to be a separate category) is a nice choice for dutch ovens.

    • DarkThoughts
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      210 hours ago

      I thought this is only something done to cast iron. Should you do this with stainless steel pots too?!

      • @grue
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        33 hours ago

        The “to get started with a new pan” part only applies to (bare, not enameled) cast iron. The “when cooking” part applies to both.

      • cabbage
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        13 hours ago

        Generally you don’t need to worry much about pots. If you have a problem of things sticking in them while cooking I guess it would work though. I have a coated cast iron pot for proper cooking, so I rarely use my stainless steel one for other things than boiling stuff. No need to season them for that.

        It needs to be done to stainless steel frying pans. If you go for a stainless steel frying pan you probably want to get a five-ply one, which means that there are two layers of (usually) aluminium inside the pan helping with heat distribution. Once you have that it’s a great alternative to cast iron - I find it easier to deglaze because the surface is shiny. But in its own right heat distribution in stainless steel is not good enough to make for a good pan, and a good stainless steel frying pan comes with a bit of a learning curve.

        I guess it’s the same thing with carbon steel as well, but I have no experience with that.