Over my years I’ve owned many types of non-stick pans. Judge me as you see fit, but I’ve owned Teflon, stainless steel, ceramic, and cast iron pans, but none of them seem to stay “non-stick” for more than a few years. I’ve had the best luck with cast iron, but my wife doesn’t like to use them because they’re heavy. I hand wash them all with soap and water, but they all seem to lose their ability to shed off what I cook in them. Does anyone have any recommendations for a good non-stick pan?
EDIT: It seems like the consensus is on cast iron, or ceramic steel. I just looked it up, and there are “slim” cast iron pans, so maybe that’ll be a happy medium. Thanks for all the anecdotes and suggestions folks.
Ok, Teflon is the only one of those that can wear off over time, and it wears off into your food so consider that.
Stainless steel and cast iron are essentially indestructible and will give you the same performance on day one and 20 years later, if yours are acting different in such a short time frame they’re either not stainless steel/cast iron or you’re not taking proper care of them.
Stainless steel is almost impossible to ruin, unless you’re cleaning them with industrial level sanding equipment I’m going to assume that’s not the issue. However stainless steel is tricky to use, you need to preheat over MEDIUM-LOW heat until the pan is UNIFORMLY heated enough that it can levitate a large bead of water all over the surface. Then you need to coat it with some form of fat like cooking oil, and you need to WAIT for the oil to heat properly (just a few seconds, but it’s not immediate). The words I capitalized are where I think most people make mistakes, they heat with high heat and so they have some parts that are very hot and others that aren’t, then they put oil and immediately add the thing they’re trying to cook, if the pan is not evenly hot enough cold spots can cause food to stick.
Cast iron is a different beast, they rely on a thin layer of polimerized oil to become non-stick. While this is resistant enough to survive most things it does wear down over time if you’re not taking proper care of it. If your cast iron pan is not as non-stick as it used to be it needs to be seasoned, so do the following:
- Clean it thoroughly with water and dish soap
- Dry it well (I tend to put it over the fire again until it’s dry, then you will let it cool down)
- Put a tiny amount of oil on it
- Grab a paper towel and spread it over the whole surface of the pan, it should look glossy
- Grab a new dry paper towel and dry the excess of oil, it will still look glossy but should not have any pools of drops of oil anywhere.
- Turn your oven to something like 200C/250C (it depends on the oil you used, look for seasoning temperature).
- Once the oven is hot you will put your pan upside down there and let it sit for at least one hour, but feel free to let it stay longer.
That should recreate the layer on the pan and make it good as new. You might need to do that periodically, maybe once a year or so depending on how you treat your pans. However after having the initial seasoning you can keep building it over time to avoid having to go through the whole process again. This is done by essentially taking good care of your pan, which means:
- Wash it after use (don’t let it sink with water for hours). Contrary to popular belief you can use regular soap here.ñ, the advice is from an era where soap had much heavier chemicals.
- Dry it after wash (you can do so with a towel, I like to put it in the fire again to ensure its thoroughly dried)
- Apply a small layer of oil like you did for seasoning before putting it away.
If you do that every use it will be good as new indefinitely. If at some point you feel it’s sticking or not acting as before you can resason it. Sometimes you might do wrong things like cutting stuff directly on the pan repitedly, or cook tomatoes or acidic food in it (the acid undoes some of the seasoning and leaves a metallic after-taste) which will require you to resason it, but as a general rule just cooking with it should keep increasing the petiquia (name of the coating created by the seasoning process).
Hope this helps, glad to answer anything else. I’m by no means an expert but I do like the few pans I have and like to cook so I’ve geeked over this for a while.
This pans out
What’s the Lemmy equivalent for /r/angryupvote ? Hahahaha
This is one of those internet comments that are just a complete and perfect download of lore that should rightfully change thousands of people’s lives. It’s all there.
What can I say, I love my pans and have geeked out over that for a while.
you need to preheat over MEDIUM-LOW heat until the pan is UNIFORMLY heated enough that it can levitate a large bead of water all over the surface.
There is no single skillet surface temp that’s right for a stainless pan. Leidenfrost gives you a visual clue as to surface temperature, but that’s all it does. It doesn’t mean that specific temp is right for any particular cook. Just as an example, you can cook a perfect over easy egg in a stainless skillet, but you cannot do it with a pan that hot.
Sure, that’s a generalized explanation but you can use a stainless steel pan in several other ways, for example boiling pasta. But if you want it to be non-stick like OP asked that’s the way. And sure, you don’t need to rely on the Leidenfrost effect, you can use a surface thermometer or after you’ve used the same pan enough just your feeling of it, but for a generalized way to tell people how to measure the temperature it’s a great marker.
BTW, I make my eggs over easy using that exact same set of steps, so it absolutely can be done. In fact if you don’t do that the egg will stick to the pan and you won’t be able to flip it, and if you can’t flip it it’s not over. Also if the pan is not hot enough the yolk will cook, the pan needs to be hot enough to sear it and cook it on the outside without giving time to cook the inside thoroughly.
The more I think about this, the worse that example looks. The steps I outlined are exactly what’s needed to make an over easy egg on a stainless steel pan.
But if you want it to be non-stick like OP asked that’s the way.
It one way, not the way.
Would love to know about other ways
Here’s so far the best seasoning method for cast iron that I’ve found after having tried multiple ones and not having too great of a success. It can’t be overstated how important it is to remove all excess oil. It doesn’t take much to ruin the results.
- Wash with soap and hot water.
- Dry thoroughly.
- Immediately into a 100 degrees C oven for 20 minutes.
- Heavy coat of oil. Canola oil works fine.
- Wipe ALL of it off. First with a cloth, then with a paper towel.
- Put back into the oven and let it warm up to 150 degrees C. Then take out and wipe with a paper towel once more.
- Back into the oven and let it heat up and bake at 250 degrees C for an hour.
- Let it fully cool before next layer.
- For the first treatment, at least 3 layers are needed. Five is even better.
A seasoned cast-iron is the way, likely you’ve not used your correctly OP.
Needs proper pre-heating prior to cooking and needs to be properly seasoned before being employed.
OP said the problem is that they’re too heavy for Mrs. OP, not that they stick. I managed that problem for years by leaving mine on its designated burner 24/7. Until I got a glass top and had to stop using it.
Carbon steel
they all seem to lose the ability to shed off what I cook on them
What’s wrong with the glass top?
The otherwise magnificent 50-year-old 14" pan has such a downward-domed and knobbly bottom it only makes about 2 square inches of contact, so it not only won’t heat up, and wobbled, it was going to scratch/break the stovetop.
I have two pans like this and I love them soooo much, but they don’t fit my regular flat top OR induction burners… might be time to gift them to loved ones who have fire in their house still.
It used to settle into my old electric coils on the old stovetop just fine, but when it died mid-Covid I had to take what I could get.
Saaaame and saaaaame hahaha. I do prefer the flats and inducts to coils for sure, but I cannot use one of my favorite pans or my wok anymore. D:
Yeah, they are great. So much more durable than any coated pan.
And a healthy natural source of iron as opposed microplatsics & teflon.
Where will I get my teflon and microplastics then?
Oh, right. Everywhere.
a teflon pan won’t emit anything if you use soft tools like wood or silicone. it’s the manufacturing that puts out forever chemicals.
not that it matters, since we can’t really absorb molecules that long and it’s already literally everywhere.
since we can’t really absorb molecules that long and it’s already literally everywhere.
I’m curious how you came to this conclusion. PFAS and PFOS stay in your body for an incredibly long time and can accumulate quickly. We have no easy way of processing them out, and yes we absorb them into our longer term cells like muscles and fat.
It’s an incredibly important health problem the world is facing, as every variant of PFAS and PFOS causes cancer. and there is no medical way to remove PFAS once its in your body. The absolute best you can do is lower (you can’t eliminate) your exposure over time and hope the build up isn’t enough to trigger cancer growth before you get cancer or die from another source of industrial pollution.
teflon itself isn’t a pfas afaik, but they’re used to produce it.
Teflon, or PTFE, is a type of PFAS, and is the most famous and most numerous contaminant in that family and the most likely contaminant to cause PFAS-related cancers in the developed world.
wouldn’t it need an alkyne group for that?
And if cast iron is too heavy, then use carbon steel or stainless. We just keep a Teflon pan to cook those frozen rotis.
Carbon steel is basically a lighter cast iron. It’ll cost more than cast iron, but it will last the same.
Or practice how to cook with stainless steel. There is a reason it’s the most commonly used pan in restaurants.
Good luck, I’ve been in the same exact boat as you. I use my cast irons (had them forever, they are what I prefer) and my wife uses the carbon steel.
Carbon steel is pretty great, and costs the same in my experience (paid 20e for my De Buyer).
However you still need to season them and most importantly you need to be careful how acidic your foods are. Cook some tomatoe sauce, seasoning will be gone unless it’s been built up for at least a year.
I didn’t know that about acidic food, thank you! Luckily, I’ve been using enameled cast iron for sauces for a long while now. I need to replace our nonstick with carbon steel!
but also the seasoning really isn’t that difficult to reapply, wipe some oil onto it with a bit of paper and put it in the oven for like an hour or whatever it is.
An aged seasoning is great but AFAIK they work perfectly fine with a basic seasoning, and frankly given the state most pans are in i don’t think people would even notice a difference between their current pan an an unseasoned carbon steel one…
Agree about not dificult to reapply, just need to know that it will go out and you’ll have to reapply
I hand wash them all with soap and water, but they all seem to lose their ability to shed off what I cook in them.
You need to oil them after washing them (wipe them down with a thin layer of vegetable oil or shortening).
Also, it may be time to reseason them if everything sticks even if you’re pre-heating it before adding the food. See: https://www.foodandwine.com/how-to-reseason-cast-iron-8600860
Check out carbon steel. Very similar physical properties to cast iron and significantly lighter. Also, learn how to properly use your pans. With proper preheating and use of fat (oil) even naturally sticky materials like stainless steel can be a dream to cook in.
I switch between cast iron and stainless steel. Tomato sauces and other acidic foods/sauces eat away at the seasoning on the cast iron, so that is where the stainless comes in handy for me.
The stainless is also a lot easier to clean and maintain.
They both need preheating to effectively become non-stick, which has caused my ADHD ridden brain to mess up both of my pans. I turn the stove on to preheat, walk away to do something else, and forget about it. The cast iron has had its seasoning burned off, and required a lot of work to get it back in shape. The stainless now has a bulge on the bottom, making it take much longer to preheat, and is now wobbly. This is just a personal flaw lol
I’ve had the best luck with cast iron, but my wife doesn’t like to use them because they’re heavy.
Tell your wife she needs to lift heavier
Can you tell her for me?
Does she like coffee? Get her a mug with a hollow section in the bottom and gradually add tungsten discs until she’s tossing cast iron around like it’s aluminum.
I didn’t do the math on what that would look like and you shouldn’t either.
Genius!
You need to lift heavier
- blarghly^ Show her this
Non stick doesnt mean magical. You’ve already run the gamut of different types, and still have issues. There is no such thing as non stick that doesnt also require proper usage and care. If you or someone in your household cant be bothered to properly use the pan then you’re shit out of luck. This is your issue, not the pan.
Have heard really good things about nitrided carbon steel pans and titanium pans - very nearly as good as teflon but without the coating to flake off into your food.
I’ve been very curious to try nitrided carbon steel, but am having trouble finding one that’s dishwasher safe 😔
It’s also tough because generally search algorithms have absolutely shit the bed the in the last few years and very often just flat out ignore parts of your search and just start showing you generic carbon steel pans, which have to be seasoned and maintained very similarly to cast iron…
Unfortunately, Teflon pans are made to fall apart, can’t make money if it lasts forever. Just expect to replace it every few years if you like Teflon, I have Teflon and stainless. Cast iron is too much upkeep in my opinion. If it can’t go in a dishwasher, it can’t come in my house to be used on the regular.
Look up flash seasoning on yt. Get the pan to 400-500 degrees, dump in oil, smoke 30 seconds, dump out all oil, let rest to reasonable temperature, optionally add cold cooking fat of your choosing. I’ve tried this method and it’s by far the best most reliable method, and beats out the bullshit of 100 thin baked on coats of seasoning advice.
I like T-Fal brand nonstick pans. I have no idea what they use to get the nonstick coating but I have had my set for years and they haven’t peeled like all the rest of my Teflon garbage has.
That being given said, a good old reliable stainless steel pan is the best backup if you don’t want to deal with chemical coatings. You need slow heat and generous oiling and it will be about as nonstick as you can get it.
I like cast iron but I find they can easily get way too hot, so I reserve those pans for searing meats.
Stainless steel is my favorite. I would bet you’re not using it right. They need to be preheated before cooking. Once you can get a bead of water dancing on the pan, after that, everything slides right off.
And I’m pretty sure soap is a no no on cast iron, but I’m no expert on that.
You can use regular dish soap on a cast iron. The big no-nos are soaking for an extended period of time and not hand-drying after washing
I always heat my cast after washing and ill sometimes do a light season with some oil once the water is evaporated. Tbh i rarely wash the cast though. I tend to give it a really good scrape with a metal spatula or scraper then its good to go again until its due for another scraping.
You really should wash it with dish soap after each use. It doesn’t hurt the seasoning and it keeps the pan from developing a ‘flavor’ from rancid oil or carry over flavors from prior meals.
I pretty much only ever cook eggs on it and i don’t notice any rancid flavor
Not using soap is nasty. The seasoning is actually the polymerized oil so it don’t give two shits about soap and only comes off with a lye based oven cleaner in my experience. You should apply a thin coat of oil after washing them but I haven’t found that to mater much vs doing it next time you cook.
Stripping and re-seasoning a cast iron pan is super satisfying too! Strip it down by your mean of choice, coat with oil and put in pre-heated oven upside down. Repeat a few times as it stops being tacky/smoking and you’ll have a pretty golden pan that is good as new!
Stainless is what I use for all my pots though. Great stuff!
My original post was misleading. I normally just wipe the cast iron with a towel to clean it, rinse it with a minimal amount of water and then season it again before I use it again. I’m leaving heavily towards cast iron being the answer, I just need to get my family to come around.
The hardest part is getting everyone on the same page about using it and caring for it correctly. Stainless steel is my choice because the maintenance is not something that can be messed up. If someone burns something on it, you do whatever you want to it. Soak it, scrape it, use whatever chemicals you want.
If you feel like your stainless steel isn’t as good as it used to be, give it a good baking soda scour, rinse, then wash it in vinegar (I’ll usually heat it up on the stove a bit to force it along). The baking soda will scratch off any carbonized food and the vinegar will dissolve any minerals. Both polish and restore the shine on stainless steel
Like others have said, check out carbon steel. It might offer the right compromise to satisfy everyone.
I also own a “LiFe pan.” lightweight cast iron - the name is a pun. Picked it up on a whim at Home Goods years ago, because I was curious about it.
www.amazon.com/iko-lightweight-stainless-vegetable-pre-seasoned/dp/b01lonjtps
It’s now one of my favorite pans. Seasons just like cast iron, and has built up a really nice polymerized coating over the years.
They’ve never been popular, so I don’t know how easy it would be to find one.
I’ve seen two kinds of lightweight cast iron: Standard, or with a non-stick coating. Do not get coated ones. If you try it, get the standard.
Strata fry pan. It’s carbon steel so requires building seasoning like a cast iron but has an aluminum core so it’s lightweight. Love mine, get good sear on meat and eggs will slide right off it.
I’m definitely going to give this a try.
I like enameled cast iron pans. Le Cruset has a set and i love it. No seasoning or maintenance, washes right off with soap and water. 6+ years later and still looks like it’s new.
