I threw out all my pots and pans that have non stick surfaces and replaced them with stainless steel.
Same with most kitchen cooking implements.
Stainless steel pots and pans are much cheaper, last longer, you can scrub and scrape them and the big upside is you don’t have to consume DuPont non stick chemical coating nor feed it to your children.
Despite all the celebrity chefs in the world attempting to sell you their name brand chemical coated fry pans.
That's not the kind of spatula they're talking about, I've rarely seen that kind be black. I'm pretty sure they mean the flat offset kind you'd use to flip eggs or pancakes.
OXO makes a flat silicone spatula too (I think they call it a turner or something), I've got one and it's been a great upgrade from the black plastic kind.
Plus it won't scratch anything enameled or nonstick etc.
in english in america, can't speak for other lanuguage/locales and too lazy to look, the word spatula is used for two different tools:
one tool is for scraping food (generally solid) inside a hot frying pan
the other tool is for scraping foods (generally liquidy generally cold) from the sides of a bowl or other container.
in the first case you want to flip your pancake and it's sticking to the pan
in the second case you want to get all of the pancake batter to pour into the frying pan.
The picture is the article is of a hot frying pan black plastic scraper.
GP's picture is a silicone cold bowl scraper.
is the disconnect
it is potentially true that you should eliminate all such spatulas made of "plastic" hot or cold, and it is potentially true that in all cases substitutions with silicone is the right move, but I'm not sure if that's what is being suggested
We have the same word for both in France, like you.
However we have an extra word for the silcon one to get all the pancake batter: marise. It is not used very much, though, outside of some cooking books or shows.
Personally, I just got afraid of ever buying takeout sushi, put a label on the black spatula and hope to use it for garage experiments but you do you...
There's a bottom of the barrel, dollar store brand under the Betty Crocker name brand in Canada - all black plastic cooking utensils, cheapest you can get in all varieties.
Every time I go over to mom's place it's so shocking to see these utensils being used for high heat applications they were never meant to be used for.
Flipping burgers in a pan, moving fries on a baking sheet - the ends of them are all warped and disfigured, bits carved out of them from scraping something and a piece of plastic chips off and ends up in the food.
Same with the pots and pans, she's been using the same teflon coated set for the better part of a decade and to her it doesn't matter that there's a spiral from the stovetop element burned into the inside of the pot where the teflon's overheated and chipped off.
I've tried buying her new pots and pans, utentils, etc. and educating her about how much plastic and teflon she has (and by extension I have) been eating over the years but it's in one ear and out the other.
We really need to stop making plastic cooking utentils. I've moved mostly to glass or metal bowls for storing, microwaving, baking foods - silicone for utensils (which I've heard is still somewhat risky even though it's inert?)
Microplastics are the leaded gasoline of my generation it seems like.
Anyone know if I should ditch this thing before thanksgiving? Oxo makes great stuff, this is food grade plastic but who knows what that’ll really mean in 50 years…
ALL my black plastic utensils are OXO and I'll be damned if I'm throwing them all out. They'll have to pry them from my room temperature dead carcinogenic fingers.
Just cook with stainless steel, it's not that hard. Add and warm fat before adding your other ingredients to prevent sticking or if you don't want additional fat, then add liquid to reduce at the end (the same way you do a wine reduction you can just use a bit of water) if your food sticks and you need to scrape it off the bottom.
Cast iron is the best. The hardest part of cast iron is all of the nonsense people believe about cast iron, leading them to think it's inconvenient and, worse, that gets them to actively make cast iron problematic.
I still have a cast iron skillet, but I mostly stopped using it once I got some carbon steel pans. In my experience they beat cast iron in nearly every way. I only use my cast iron now if I need a huge amount of thermal capacity (like pre-heating it to make pizza on or something) or for the presentation value.
If you have cast iron and you’re having a lot of food sticking issues then you may need to reseason it. As a person that uses mostly cast iron, I prefer it, but I think it does require a bit more care.
Eggs in hot oil in a clean, smooth preheated pan should not stick...
Consider trying carbon steel. It's lighter than cast iron and just as non-stick once it's well seasoned. It's ubiquitous in restaurant and hotel kitchens.
Microplastic and heart disease are both potentially going to affect my health, but the direct impact of heart disease is a lot easier to prove and test for...
This - its super easy. I use an IR temp gun and once the pan is 170, add 1 tbsp. of butter, and it never sticks. I've showed friends and they still insist on their nasty Teflon/non-stick crap.
https://archive.ph/2024.10.30-145843/https://www.theatlantic...
A lot of coffee makers run hot water over black plastics too.
My read of this article is that the main problem comes from black plastic that claims to be made of recycled material being contaminated.
[dead]
IJS no harm comes from isolating hot food from plastics altogether.
I threw out all my pots and pans that have non stick surfaces and replaced them with stainless steel.
Same with most kitchen cooking implements.
Stainless steel pots and pans are much cheaper, last longer, you can scrub and scrape them and the big upside is you don’t have to consume DuPont non stick chemical coating nor feed it to your children.
Despite all the celebrity chefs in the world attempting to sell you their name brand chemical coated fry pans.
Barista: you want a lid? Me: what color is it?
https://www.target.com/p/oxo-silicone-spatula/-/A-80221533 Here you go. Replace it with this one.
As mentioned, the article is talking about plastic flippers, not silicone spatulas, but either way, I would recommend this [1] spatula set instead.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KSMBL26
That's not the kind of spatula they're talking about, I've rarely seen that kind be black. I'm pretty sure they mean the flat offset kind you'd use to flip eggs or pancakes.
Indeed. Look here instead, perhaps:
https://www.seriouseats.com/best-nonstick-silicone-spatulas-...
But if you’re cooking on a pan that tolerates stainless steel, this one and its smaller cousin are excellent:
https://www.oxo.com/large-stainless-steel-flexible-turner.ht...
The upgrade Tevolo pick they list is worth the upgrade, and I’ve been gradually discarding the cheaper turners in favor of it.
The black one makes an acceptable bowl scraper, but it seems to not appreciate dishwasher life as well as a typical rubber scraper would.
I was a professional cook for a long time so dexter 6.5 fish spat 4 lyfe.
OXO makes a flat silicone spatula too (I think they call it a turner or something), I've got one and it's been a great upgrade from the black plastic kind.
Plus it won't scratch anything enameled or nonstick etc.
Why would GP suggest that spatula if it was the one they're saying is bad in the article?
in english in america, can't speak for other lanuguage/locales and too lazy to look, the word spatula is used for two different tools:
one tool is for scraping food (generally solid) inside a hot frying pan
the other tool is for scraping foods (generally liquidy generally cold) from the sides of a bowl or other container.
in the first case you want to flip your pancake and it's sticking to the pan
in the second case you want to get all of the pancake batter to pour into the frying pan.
The picture is the article is of a hot frying pan black plastic scraper.
GP's picture is a silicone cold bowl scraper.
is the disconnect
it is potentially true that you should eliminate all such spatulas made of "plastic" hot or cold, and it is potentially true that in all cases substitutions with silicone is the right move, but I'm not sure if that's what is being suggested
We have the same word for both in France, like you.
However we have an extra word for the silcon one to get all the pancake batter: marise. It is not used very much, though, outside of some cooking books or shows.
Got it, thanks for the explanation!
Paper link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004565352...
Press release: https://toxicfreefuture.org/press-room/first-ever-study-find...
Personally, I just got afraid of ever buying takeout sushi, put a label on the black spatula and hope to use it for garage experiments but you do you...
There's a bottom of the barrel, dollar store brand under the Betty Crocker name brand in Canada - all black plastic cooking utensils, cheapest you can get in all varieties.
Every time I go over to mom's place it's so shocking to see these utensils being used for high heat applications they were never meant to be used for.
Flipping burgers in a pan, moving fries on a baking sheet - the ends of them are all warped and disfigured, bits carved out of them from scraping something and a piece of plastic chips off and ends up in the food.
Same with the pots and pans, she's been using the same teflon coated set for the better part of a decade and to her it doesn't matter that there's a spiral from the stovetop element burned into the inside of the pot where the teflon's overheated and chipped off.
I've tried buying her new pots and pans, utentils, etc. and educating her about how much plastic and teflon she has (and by extension I have) been eating over the years but it's in one ear and out the other.
We really need to stop making plastic cooking utentils. I've moved mostly to glass or metal bowls for storing, microwaving, baking foods - silicone for utensils (which I've heard is still somewhat risky even though it's inert?)
Microplastics are the leaded gasoline of my generation it seems like.
What about black rubber spatulas?
These days "rubber" could just be some synthetic plastic like in car tires. It's less likely to be natural rubber.
Anyone know if I should ditch this thing before thanksgiving? Oxo makes great stuff, this is food grade plastic but who knows what that’ll really mean in 50 years…
https://a.co/d/3IND56X
ALL my black plastic utensils are OXO and I'll be damned if I'm throwing them all out. They'll have to pry them from my room temperature dead carcinogenic fingers.
...and take the opportunity to ditch the teflon pans while you're at it. They're toxic.
https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/teflon-polytetrafluor...
Just cook with stainless steel, it's not that hard. Add and warm fat before adding your other ingredients to prevent sticking or if you don't want additional fat, then add liquid to reduce at the end (the same way you do a wine reduction you can just use a bit of water) if your food sticks and you need to scrape it off the bottom.
I want to but my eggs stick like crazy. I’ve even tried all the tips too like oil when droplets float, etc.
Cast iron? My eggs slide around great every time, and I scrub it with Dawn and a sponge after every cook (it is a myth that you cannot do this)
Cast iron is the best. The hardest part of cast iron is all of the nonsense people believe about cast iron, leading them to think it's inconvenient and, worse, that gets them to actively make cast iron problematic.
I still have a cast iron skillet, but I mostly stopped using it once I got some carbon steel pans. In my experience they beat cast iron in nearly every way. I only use my cast iron now if I need a huge amount of thermal capacity (like pre-heating it to make pizza on or something) or for the presentation value.
It is incredibly difficult to damage cast iron and not hard to clean. I love the stuff.
I’ve never seen eggs not stick to cast iron.
Same here. Judging from other answers, I wonder if it is because we are not dropping them into hot oil?
If you have cast iron and you’re having a lot of food sticking issues then you may need to reseason it. As a person that uses mostly cast iron, I prefer it, but I think it does require a bit more care.
Let the eggs develop a crust on the bottom before doing anything with them.
Absolutely. Hot pan, hot fat, let the egg set enough not to tear before you try to turn it.
Eggs in hot oil in a clean, smooth preheated pan should not stick...
Consider trying carbon steel. It's lighter than cast iron and just as non-stick once it's well seasoned. It's ubiquitous in restaurant and hotel kitchens.
Carbon steel is also seemingly indestructible; cleaning if something is stuck means deglazing the hot pan.
I love my carbon steel skillets.
Do you heat up your pan before adding butter and/or oil? That's an important step to avoid sticking.
Use butter.
Microplastic and heart disease are both potentially going to affect my health, but the direct impact of heart disease is a lot easier to prove and test for...
That's why you should use butter because it's well known and you can test if you're eating too much.
>Just cook with stainless steel, it's not that hard
i've cooked a lot for a long time, and I have never gotten stainless steel to not stick absolutely everything (except water for pasta :)
I use cast iron and anodized aluminum and they are slippery AF
This - its super easy. I use an IR temp gun and once the pan is 170, add 1 tbsp. of butter, and it never sticks. I've showed friends and they still insist on their nasty Teflon/non-stick crap.