Cooking Pan

It may sound ridiculous. Writing a blog post about cooking pans. Out of frustration i don't know what to buy to replace mine that are long done. Or about frying eggs. One of the easiest jobs a kid could do. Really. Then let me confess. It challenges me every time. It surely throws me off of my continuous immersion in the reality of my blogging, history, semantics and politics.

I bet everybody fell in love when the teflon coated pans when they came out. I mean, for a while. Cause after a few months usage, they start to stick as well. A little at first, and as they stick more you kinda get used to. My guess is by heating it up, scrapping it even with a gentle nylon scrapper or spatula, the teflon loses the smoothness of the surface. Theoretically it should work up to 500 degrees. Usually, you use it at around 400. But at that temperature thermal stress is not negligible.

In fact thermal and chemical expansions are some of the greatest forces in our immediate universe. Even if they had the same expansion thermal coefficient (how much materials expand with heat), teflon as any plastic is way less thermally conductive than the metal base, and will heat and expand less. Teflon coated pans are a dual material assembly and that is their weakness.

The pans are submitted to a lot of stress during their lifetime especially by heating/cooling cycles, chemicals found in foods that break down while heating, making it very corrosive for the coating. When tiny microscopic cracks appear at the surface, the pan is done. Food like egg whites will enter the cracks and stick on the surface. But will still work, somehow.

Then it becomes a source of trouble, questions and mental improvisation. What setting should i put the knob at? How much oil or butter to cook an egg? Should i heat the pan first? Should i heat it after washing?

Then the news about toxicity of teflon hit. They had to think of something else. 2008, the year when teflon pans were banned in Europe, 2014 in the US. But guess what. When i did a search on Amazon on non stick pans, first results were the teflon ones. PTFE without harmful PFOAs, they say. Non toxic teflon that is. Whatever.  The same disadvantage though. Won't last long.

Then (modern) ceramic pans came out in... 2008. Surprisingly, non-sticking as promised. For a while usually longer than teflon. Until the ceramics loses its shineness and develops microscopic cracks where the food sticks. Same reasons. Thermal, chemical and mechanical stress (scrapping, scrubbing, abrasive dishwasher detergent, name it). But it will be years before that happens. 

But when you accidentally forget on the burner on high and overheat a pan, the pan is done. It usually changes shape and would not stay flat on the burner anymore. But still keep on cooking in it maybe for years or until it eventually catches permanently brown patches with a layer of carbon from decomposing and burning stuff that won't com out even when scrubbing with a sponge using semi-wet baking soda (Most powerful scrubbing method by me).

But it's not until you can't cook an egg in a pan you won't give it up. Reasons. You got used to it. They are quite expensive to buy them more than once a few years. Every once in a while the eggs will come out nicely which will de-motivate you. If you use butter and keep temperature low, like the dial at 3 with a (glass) lid on top, it will take 4-5 minutes but the eggs won't stick no matter how bad the pan is. Thinking if a new one is not more toxic than one that is coated with burnt food. Laziness. Forgetfulness. So today i got to that point. Went on Amazon and got confused with the choices.

Then i started to ask myself google. What kinda pans chefs use in real life at restaurant. Stainless steel pans, came the answer. Stainless steel was invented in 2013, and it does not rust by reason of having a relatively high content of chromium in it. Which develops on the surface an oxide layer that protects the iron base of the alloy from being oxidized (rusted) by the oxygen in the air. That of course is constantly being scraped by usage. Is that good for your health? Who cares? I don't go to restaurants other than fast foods and they fry the burgers on carbon coated by usage stove tops when they don't heat them in the microwave.

The main reasons chefs don't use coated pans are the same as above and that can be summarized in a word. Fragile. They won't last more than a few days in that environment. But in the google answer, there is an indication. Chefs will keep, locked, a number of ceramic pans for... cooking eggs.

So i think i got my answer, and writing down everything i knew helped me as well. It looks like i'm moving more and more my decision making processes within the blog where all my friends are.

But when i read about toxicity of pans, i heard some manufacturers use cadmium to make the colors of the pan brighter, to make them more marketable of course. Still the same reckless, useless, irresponsible profit making drive. On Amazon some ceramic pans are voluntarily marked as cadmium free to be more attractive. So where that marketing strategy led them to?

The part with the toxicity of teflon i didn't know about until today made me again dream of the day when after asbestos, lead, teflon and now cadmium, they will ban cellular phones as well. They all came out of convenience and as profit makers. I mean, you add a bit of lead in gasoline and make it way better. You spray coat an aluminum pan with a bit of teflon and make it way better etc.. You pull your phone out of your pocket anywhere and make a call or check your email etc..

Thinking. We all share the profits cause corporations pay taxes on profit and the profit gets reinvested and creates new jobs. In China though. Look at that chart, the revenue section and compare individual and property taxes with corporate taxes.