Never, EVER, buy aluminum pans with non-stick coating on them.
I don't care how cheap they are, or how expensive. Don't buy them.
No matter how well you take care of them, that plastic coating is going to come off into your food. It is, of course, a carcinogen. Not that I don't ignore a lot of other carcinogens, but I have a particular hate on for that one. And, once it does come off, you are cooking on aluminum, which, last I heard, may be associated with Alzheimer's.
Even if you can only afford one at a time, buy stainless steel, Corning ware and cast iron pans. They last a long time and, if anything does transfer to your food, it's good stuff, like iron.
Corning ware can be put in the microwave, too.
Do not put an iron pan in the dishwasher. If you throw a very hot one out into the snow, it will crack. This is the voice of experience talking.
Buy good pots and pans. The heavier the better. One person can get by with one stainless steel pan, for a while. You just have to wash it a lot. Not such a bad thing.
I've bought some of my best pans at thrift shops. Especially stainless steel frying pans. Garage sales are good, too, as long as you know what you are looking for.
You don't have to start life off with a fully stocked kitchen like your mom has. She didn't start off with all that stuff, and, if push came to shove, she could get by without most of it.
Just stay away from coated aluminum.
Oh boy, have you got that right! I bought a roasting pan and that bloody thing was coated. It bubbles and ruined my food, now it has gone bye byes.
ReplyDeleteWhy are stores still selling them? They should not be on the shelves in stores.
Ronni,
ReplyDeleteWhat! You're telling us that you threw a very hot pan out into the snow?
Why? Pancakes didn't turn out?
I had to laugh when I read that because I threw a pan out the door once when the stuff I was cooking looked unedible and I've been wondering ever since what got into me.
They keep changing the formula (or the name) of the coating, so they can say it's no longer a carcinogen. As for the aluminum thing, there is not yet any proof that the relationship with Alz. is a cause-and-effect one.
ReplyDeleteYup. It was burning my hand, right through the potholder, so I flung it out the back door.
ReplyDeleteCan't say I have thrown a pot out the back door, but the stank burnt bag of popcorn from the microwave? Yeah, that flew out there as fast as I could get it there. Don't you love that wonderful smell that lasts for days?
ReplyDeleteParticularly if the contents that got burned were brown rice and waaaaay too much garlic.
ReplyDeleteSpring, I can totally identify with the burnt popcorn thing. I can top it, though. Never warm up hotdog buns on a paper plate in the microwave unless you're POSITIVE you've only set it to go for 20 seconds, not twenty minutes!
ReplyDeleteAfter 2 1/2 weeks, many scrubbings, and a large box of baking soda in permanent residence inside the microwave, the smell is beginning to subside.
And Ronni, I've banned Teflon pans from my kitchen for about 6 years now. That's scary stuff.
Nadine
Rutro! I have the Kirkland Signature cookware. It's non stick.
ReplyDeletePlease see link to Scientific American article
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=0000FCD2-AA88-1C71-9EB7809EC588F2D7&catID=3
discounting any link between aluminum pans and Alzheimers. It doesn't address non-stick coating, however.
Snopes also addresses aluminum rumors:
http://www.snopes.com/movies/actors/valentino.asp
From your link:
ReplyDelete"This issue has been the subject of many studies, workshops and reports since the early 1970s. Unfortunately, there is no clear-cut answer either to implicate or to absolve the role of aluminum in causing Alzheimer's disease. At present it is not clear whether the aluminum found in the brain of an Alzheimer's victim got there because there is disease already in progress or if the aluminum starts the process."
The Scientific American article goes on to state that we absorb aluminum from our water supplies, among other sources.
The article also states that IF aluminum plays a role, it is a minor one.
Thanks for the info, Lynn L.