Pots & Pans for Cooking Question

[jamoo]

a) When the non-stick surface starts to wear away, is that bad for you?

b) If it is, what do you do with the old cookwear? recycling?

[maz]

a) it's bad for your cooking, don't know if it's bad for you, I mean, I never really thought about it but that surface must be getting into your food somehow and can't be good.

b) recycling. As in give to a college student who needs pots and pans.

[Rigsby]

Most of our pots and pans get used for percussion whether they're old and used up or not, so i'd suggest that. Some great sounds, try different places on the pots and pans with a wide range of beaters and sticks, you'll get some lovely sounds from tinny harsh cowbells to lush gongs.

[tkheadroom]

Yes, it is bad for you when the nonstick coating is damaged and flaking. There's been a lot in the news lately about Teflon (the stuff that is the nonstick element) possibly causing cancer. Although that's par for the course for anything Dupont manufactures, it's just great that it's in our pots and pans that we use for cooking! My girlfriend didn't believe that it could be bad to use a pan with damaged coating after she used a beater in my nice Cephalon pan and chewed up the coating, I told her she could eat out of it...

Also, aluminum pans and cookware may be linked to Alzheimers...

[I'm Painting Again]

just throw em out..invest in the the expensive copper stuff..like copper all-clad..and never have to buy pot/pans the rest of your life or your chilrens lives etc..and food will cook better and taste better..certainly better than a slow teflon poisoning..

[apropos of nothing]

I refuse to even cook with intact non-stick cookware, much less something with a chipped surface. Toss'em. There's nothing to be done for them.

Get stainless steel or cast iron. They're nice and inert metals. Fucking stupid alloys shedding.

[tkheadroom]

So, does anyone have any recommendations on stainless or copper clad stuff that's good and moderately priced?

that'd be rad.

[cassettefetish]

i was working as a temp for a place that sold pots & pans... this was awhile ago...

I worked there for three months on one assignment, and learned a lot...

supposedly teflon gives off gasses, and should not be used around birds.

this company also sold sets of pans that were as much as 3700$$.

[djimbe]

I'm a fan of the Revere Wear stainless stuff with the copper bottom. It's moderately priced and works well. Their wall thickness looks thin, but the copper bottoms distribute heat quickly and evenly and as a result you don't need to crank a burner to get 'em hot. Nice and stainless inside so they don't react with acids. For frying though, I find a stainless skillet with a nice heavy aluminum bottom works better than the Revere stuff. Harder to scortch such a pan when using high stir fry type heat...

[apropos of nothing]

You can get them singly, and just accumulate them, much the same way many people build their studios or their computers.

Start with a 14" sauce pan, then get a pasta kettle, then a smaller fry pan and then a soup pot.

Target's got a couple sets of stainless cookware that aren't too horrible or too horribly expensive.
http://www.target.com/gp/search.html/re ... 2Bcookware

You could do worse.

[nlmd311]

Most of our pots and pans get used for percussion whether they're old and used up or not, so i'd suggest that. Some great sounds, try different places on the pots and pans with a wide range of beaters and sticks, you'll get some lovely sounds from tinny harsh cowbells to lush gongs.

awesome. I have done the same things with old pots and pans. I had a 12" fry pan affixed to my drum set for a while.
Stay away from non-stick items that have a worn or somewhat missing coating. Use them as percussion, use them as a place to store your art supplies, but don't cook with them, and PLEASE do not donate them to goodwill, or another type deal. That is just plain evil.
I can't say enough about Caphalon cookwear. I got an 8" stainless pan for Christmas and use it every day for one thing or another. The stuff can be a bit expensive, but if you look around for sales, or hunt through the coupons for a deal at Bed, Bath, and Beyond or another similar type of store that regularly offers coupons you can get a set for quite cheap.
Copper cookwear is awesome, but copper is reactive so you have to take that into consideration for some recipes.

-Darrill

[marqueemoon]

Yeah. The nonstick stuff is pretty bad for you. I use the All-Clad stuff or, even better, cast iron.

[Rigsby]

even better, cast iron.

Hmm..good call, i love my cast iron pan, and it also makes a lovely soft chime when you hit it with a beater.

[I'm Painting Again]

teflon blurb from the Boston Post :

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editor ... questions/