46
votes
Accepted
Why do metal utensils scrape teflon pans more than wooden?
Metal is a lot harder than wood, which means when it hits another surface, it won't deform on a microscopic level the way wood does. This means that, while a wood utensil rubbing against a nonstick ...
- 2,247
38
votes
Accepted
Cooking with sugar makes pan very difficult to clean
Melted and re-hardened sugar (including caramel) is very difficult to remove through mechanical action, but trivial to remove by soaking. Just pour in enough hot water to cover the sugar and wait an ...
- 26.1k
35
votes
Accepted
What to use to cut things on non stick surfaces?
I'd pre-cut them myself - I tend to cut mine in the tin using a plastic spatula; after all they're soft and easy to cut. Then
There are stiff plastic knives (for some reason sold for use on lettuce). ...
- 43.1k
27
votes
Accepted
Seasoned Cast Iron NOT being Non-stick
Don't use flaxseed oil, it's one of the worst.
Something I only discovered recently is it's not just the smoke point you should be concerned about, it's the iodine number. This is important when it ...
- 29k
26
votes
Accepted
Can I bake cookies without baking paper?
First of all, if your baking sheet is nonstick you may not need baking paper at all. If it is not, then either directly greasing the baking sheet, or putting tinfoil on it and greasing that works ...
- 10.6k
21
votes
Can I bake cookies without baking paper?
In Spain it's very common to "grease and flour coating" to any baking mold or tray!
It is quite easy! Get some butter, apply it to the tray evenly, add some flour (regular flour works) and ...
- 1,431
18
votes
Accepted
Do pan "pores" exist, what are they, and what are their effects?
I work for a carbon steel cookware producer in China and just like Athanasius, I too have become interested in the question of "Do pan “pores” exist, what are they, and what are their effects?" I have ...
- 196
16
votes
What to use to cut things on non stick surfaces?
You can use soft cutters for some baked goods, but not for all. Wherever you need a sharp cutting implement, the solution is to change not the knife, but the cutting surface. I have three typical ...
- 135k
12
votes
How does a marzipan knife work?
Judging from the picture, the knife gets thinner towards the spine after reaching a point of maximum thickness somewhere in the middle of the blade. This means a straight piece of sticky food cannot ...
- 15.3k
9
votes
Seasoned Cast Iron NOT being Non-stick
I don't have a specific remedy for the seasoning, as there are lots of things that could have gone wrong. I suspect if this was a new Lodge pan, there may have been some issues with the added ...
- 32k
8
votes
Do pan "pores" exist, what are they, and what are their effects?
Mechanical engineer by trade here with a smattering of materials science background, I think I can weigh in a bit on this topic. There are a few questions that I think are getting conflated with this ...
- 81
8
votes
Is nonstick cookware safe to use after overheating
Based on a search of sources covering health risks around Teflon (PTFE) cookware, nobody has found any evidence that cooking with previously overheated cookware is dangerous to your health. Breathing ...
- 58.9k
8
votes
Accepted
Why does oil puddle in some non-stick frying pans but not in others?
All Teflon pans are non-stick, but not all non-stick pans are Teflon ;-)
Teflon, when new, is one of the slippiest substances known to man. Nothing will adhere to it, not even oil. When new, you can ...
- 29k
8
votes
Can I bake cookies without baking paper?
At my house, we simply grease our pans with some olive oil, spreading it around with a piece of tissue. Sometimes, we dust our pans with all purpose flour instead.
The flour dusting takes away a ...
- 3,581
7
votes
Safe to use non-sticky pan with scratches?
Related question here. A few years back, I spent a lot of time researching this issue over at Chowhound. There have probably been hundreds of scientific studies on this stuff, so you can read about ...
- 32k
7
votes
After full reseasoning of my cast iron, eggs are still sticking
I have a similar (but not the same) frying pan. Your problem is, most likely, a lack of heat, not a lack of seasoning.
I always set my frying pan, empty, on a low/medium fire. When it starts to come ...
- 13.1k
7
votes
Accepted
How do I know what kind of coating is on this pan?
Whitford is, in fact, a chemical company that makes nonstick coatings, so the label makes sense. Since 2016 they've been offering PTFE (Teflon) without PFOA, so that's most likely what the coating on ...
- 58.9k
6
votes
Accepted
How do I prevent dougnuts deflating when moving them into the pan?
I suspect @Stephie is correct in thinking they may be over proofed. Having said that, you could try the method that is used when making crullers.
Place shaped donuts on parchment paper that has been ...
- 5,323
6
votes
Accepted
Normal lifetime of non-stick teflon pans
America's Test Kitchen says that good quality nonstick pans last them about six months.
They're presumably cooking with them several times a day, so if you use it once every couple days, and are as ...
- 58.1k
6
votes
Accepted
non-rusting sauce pot for boiling water
Just use a glass pot, Corningware make some decent ones that can be used on a stove. But any glass pot designed to work on a stove with direct heat/flame exposure should work in this case.
If you are ...
- 1,084
6
votes
non-rusting sauce pot for boiling water
Quality austenitic stainless steel* should certainly not rust from boiling plain water (excepting MAYBE some rust in places like handle weld spots - the metallurgy is upset in these spots, and usually ...
- 15.3k
6
votes
After baking, bread coated with shiny residue
It looks indeed like the Sourdough and the anti-stick disagree with each other... though the extent of it is something I have neither seen nor heard about yet! May be the non-stick version you do have....
- 1,377
6
votes
Nonstick Pan Ruined in High Heat?
Yes high heat can burn off the nonstick coating.
My roommate's girlfriend did one of my pans that way, heating it very hot while dry. It was pretty spectacular. Everyone in the house had this weird ...
- 6,596
6
votes
Is a degraded Teflon pan toxic to all of its users?
There is no current evidence that already-degraded PTFE (Teflon) poses any toxicity risks in its solid form. To quote the University of California School of Public Health:
There’s no evidence, ...
- 58.9k
6
votes
Does washing rice in a non-stick pot erode the non-stick coating over time?
No, there is not.
Nonstick coatings, while softer than steel, are considerably harder than rice grains.
- 58.9k
5
votes
Is there any way to make crepes without a proper non-stick pan?
Please try the South Indian method of making Dosai/Dosa. You can use any type of Griddle such as non-stick, cast iron, stainless steel or even Hard Anodised. The trick lies in treating the griddle ...
- 51
5
votes
Seasoning old non-stick aluminum pan?
I tried seasoning an aluminium kawali and was pretty successful doing this.
I cleaned it very well and then layered it with a bit of oil (use peanut or canola) and then baked it outside on the bbq (or ...
- 51
5
votes
Why do my nonstick fry pans 'bow up' and not make good contact with my flat top stove
This most frequently happens with thinner pans used on too small of a burner.
Effectively what you're doing is heating up the center of the pan so that it expands, but the outside edge hasn't heated ...
- 79.3k
5
votes
Accepted
Recovering old wok with unknown lining
The way it is flaking off (flakes sticking out instead of breaking off) suggests it is an old-school (non reinforced) teflon coating, not an enamel.
If the underlying metal is actually stainless (not ...
- 15.3k
5
votes
Seasoned Cast Iron NOT being Non-stick
I've found that seasoning is only one part of the equation.
Another part is the texture of the pan. See myth #6 from Kenji at Serious Eats: The Truth About Cast Iron Pans: 7 Myths That Need To Go ...
- 321
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