Friday, March 23, 2012

My Favorite Skillets

I have wasted a lot of money over the yrs. on pots & pans. Teflon was great for non- stick until they found it was bad for you. I got rid of all my Teflon cookware & bought stainless steel. I had trouble with the skillets, stuff sticking to them. A lot of that was the cook, trying to mess with things before it was ready to turn! I bought a Scan Pan skillet $90 that was supposed to be non-stick; that was the worst skillet I ever cooked with. I now have quite a few cast iron pieces & enjoy using it. I use it in my smoker too.

About 4 years ago I bought a 9 inch Green Pan, I liked it well enough I also bought an 11 inch skillet. I swear by these skillets, they still look almost new. They will stick if you don’t use them right. I have found they do best if I set my glass top range just one notch above medium & I always use light olive oil. Once they are hot I can set down to med. or one notch below. Clean- up is easy usually just hot water & a little soap. Anything baked on I have found Mr. Clean’s magic eraser works great.

I always remembered my Mother frying eggs in a small steel skillet. I was always going to buy one but the only place you could find them was at camping supplies & they were expensive. It seems they are making a comeback & you can find plenty on the net. My first one I bought from Amazon, a cheaper carbon steel American Cuisine 10 ½ inch skillet. Care for the carbon steel is just like cast iron, it must be seasoned. Once I got mine broke in I really like, it does fried potatoes & non-stick. The carbon steel is a lot lighter than the cast iron. As with my cast iron I usually just wash in hot water, dry good then a light coat of oil, I set on a burner set on high & remove when it starts to smoke. Basically I re-season mine after each use.

Lodge Ware just recently started making carbon steel skillets, a 9, 10, & 12 inch made in the USA. I like buying things that say Made in the U.S.A. So I just bought the 12 inch. It is heavier than my cheap carbon steel skillet but one thing it sits flat on my glass top. I have just used it a few times but I think it will become my favorite skillet.

It looks to me like we have always had non-stick cookware in cast iron & carbon steel. You just have to know how to cook in it & care for it.

My Green Pan & American Cuisine steel skillet


My Lodge 12 inch carbon steel skillet, frying bacon


Smokin Don

3 comments:

  1. There's so much misinformation out there about the Teflon® brand, I'm not surprised that you are concerned. I'm a representative of DuPont though, and hope you'll let me share some information with you and your readers so that everyone can make truly informed decisions.

    Regulatory agencies, consumer groups and health associations all have taken a close look at the Teflon® brand. This article highlights what they found -- the bottom line is that you can use Teflon® non-stick without worry.

    http://www.fluoropolymer-facts.com/PFOA/content.cfm?ItemNumber=4137&navItemNumber=4040xxx

    I'd truly be glad to share additional information about it if you are interested, and appreciate your consideration of this comment. Cheers, Sara.

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  2. Sara, I do not like to put mis-information out there. But it looks to me like since you work for DuPont, you just might be putting mis-information out there.
    After all it is a big business & we see more & more big business really does not care about what is good for us but what is good for them! Money can buy any study that is pro to you. Don

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  3. Sara since you want to use my blog to promote teflon, made by the co. you work for I will add this and let my readers dicide for themselves whether to use it or not. I found the link to the site you give the address to is sponsored by the plastics industry!

    I found this at ABC Health & Wellbeing; When it comes to the non-stick products themselves though, DuPont says there is no risk to consumers. PFOA, says the company, is used the in the manufacturing process but is driven out during that process. There is no PFOA left in the non-stick surface in the final product.

    The EPA agrees. 'At the present time, EPA does not believe there is any reason for consumers to stop using any consumer or industrial related products that contain PFOA', says the EPA's website.

    Nevertheless, non-stick fry pans can release toxins. At high temperatures Teflon is known to give off a cocktail of 15 types of toxic particles and gases, including trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) and phosgene. These chemicals are known to be poisonous to birds. And in humans they case headaches, chills, backache, and fever - a condition known as 'Teflon flu'.

    DuPont admits this, but it says in humans the condition is reversible, and in any case it only occurs at high temperatures, not during normal cooking use.

    DuPont also will continue to release PFOA's into the invironment until 2015.

    So readers decide for yourself!
    Don

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