Non-Stick Cooking Surfaces

[Thanks for the Crepes]

I make pot stickers in the stainless skillet and never had a problem with sticking.

 

I just remember big problems with fried rice and grits, both of which had been refrigerated at least overnight, and the pan was spotlessly clean. I can't explain it, but it's not worth it to me to try again because it wasted a lot of food and I had to start over in non-stick anyway.

[GlorifiedRice]

Well, I bought a SS T-Fal pot after my old ones handle fell off and its a bitch to clean. Everything sticks.

I also bought a cast iron pan and seasoned it and still cant cook eggs in it without them sticking.

So whatever.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

All stainless/cast iron is not created equal.

 

My KitchenAid skillet has a mirror finish cooking surface, which is not usually hard to clean at all, some starches notwithstanding. I have an old Wagner Ware cast iron 10" skillet that has a very smooth seasoned surface, although I don't use it for eggs because I want to use minimal butter. I also don't use it for crepes because the weight's not conducive to the fast swirling motion needed.

 

I don't own Lodge cast iron, but I've heard its cooking surfaces these days are not polished, and much harder to season to anywhere near non-stick.

 

I also have a couple Morgan Ware heavy 3-ply induction bottomed ss 3 qt saucepans, but the lower interior surface is not mirror shiny, but rather "brushed" with very shallow grooves. I cook rice in them, but I would never expect them to be non-stick for high heat applications.

 

For eggs and crepes, at lower heat applications, I'm still wedded to my non-stick.

[Shel_B]

I make pot stickers in the stainless skillet and never had a problem with sticking.

 

I just remember big problems with fried rice and grits, both of which had been refrigerated at least overnight, and the pan was spotlessly clean. I can't explain it, but it's not worth it to me to try again because it wasted a lot of food and I had to start over in non-stick anyway.

 

I'm going to try making some fried rice in the next week or two.  It'll be interesting to see the results.  Since I can't recall when I last made fried rice, it should be a good experiment.  I'll try to take pictures, as well.

[Lindacakes]

I usually have a parrot around the house, so I don't use Teflon.  When I don't have a parrot in the house, I still don't use Teflon.  I don't find it an "honest" surface to cook on, I can't get a feel for it.

 

I cook eggs in All Clad and everything else, including pancakes, in cast iron.

[Susie Q]

I mainly use All-Clad, Staub, and cast iron.  10+ years ago I bought a set of 8" and 10' non-stick skillets from Costco that never seem to wear out. I've used them for eggs and what not over the years and they still haven't scratched or chipped. When I finally got my grandmother's cast iron skillets those became my go to egg & corn bread pan. With all those years of use they have become non-stick.

Edited July 23, 2015 by Susie Q (log)

[paulraphael]

If you want a non-stick pan, go to a restaurant supply store, get a commercial one, and don't spend more than $30. There's no point to expensive non-stick cookware. And no need for nonstick at all outside a handful of tasks, like cooking eggs. For everything else, other surfaces will outperform it by a lot. And anything non-stick is essentially disposable. The surfaces will not keep their performance very long with frequent use, no matter what the marketing copy says. 

 

What Creuset does well is enameled cast iron.

[Anna N]

7 minutes ago, paulraphael said:

If you want a non-stick pan, go to a restaurant supply store, get a commercial one, and don't spend more than $30. There's no point to expensive non-stick cookware. And no need for nonstick at all outside a handful of tasks, like cooking eggs. For everything else, other surfaces will outperform it by a lot. And anything non-stick is essentially disposable. The surfaces will not keep their performance very long with frequent use, no matter what the marketing copy says. 

 

What Creuset does well is enameled cast iron.

 I have had excellent experience with IKEA nonstick pans.   They are heavier than most, many are induction compatible and they seem to go on and on and on.

[paulraphael]

If you need induction-compatible, and you want it heavy, you may have to spend a little more. Here's a selection

at a restaurant store. This market is likewise not immune to marketing gobbledygook, so I'm not saying I vouch for all the claims here. Just that I don't think any of the expensive home pans is better than the best of these. Or even the average of these. 

 

I'm skeptical of claims of high longevity in nonstick coatings. The most nonstick coating is PTFE, and it seems to lose its oomph after a few hundred cooks. Not sure why. Ceramic (sol-gel) coatings start out with less stick-resistance, and either have similar or worse longevity, depending on who you ask.

 

Some companies reinforce PTFE with ceramic particles. This protects it some from abuse ... like being scraped off by steel spatulas. But it doesn't have any affect on the gradual fade of stick-resistance. 

 

At home, if you're using the pan for what it's good for (eggs), and taking reasonable care of it, I imagine you could get a long life out of a nonstick pan. But not if you're (ab)using it as a workhorse.

 

Any chefs / restaurant owners here? Have you ever had a teflon pan last a whole year?

[Anna N]

50 minutes ago, paulraphael said:

If you need induction-compatible, and you want it heavy, you may have to spend a little more. Here's a selection

at a restaurant store. This market is likewise not immune to marketing gobbledygook, so I'm not saying I vouch for all the claims here. Just that I don't think any of the expensive home pans is better than the best of these. Or even the average of these. 

 

I'm skeptical of claims of high longevity in nonstick coatings. The most nonstick coating is PTFE, and it seems to lose its oomph after a few hundred cooks. Not sure why. Ceramic (sol-gel) coatings start out with less stick-resistance, and either have similar or worse longevity, depending on who you ask.

 

Some companies reinforce PTFE with ceramic particles. This protects it some from abuse ... like being scraped off by steel spatulas. But it doesn't have any affect on the gradual fade of stick-resistance. 

 

At home, if you're using the pan for what it's good for (eggs), and taking reasonable care of it, I imagine you could get a long life out of a nonstick pan. But not if you're (ab)using it as a workhorse.

 

Any chefs / restaurant owners here? Have you ever had a teflon pan last a whole year?

My Ikea non sticks are not in regular rotation by any means. They meet certain needs better than most other pans but cast iron, stainless and black steel carry the heavy loads. 

[Porthos]

11 hours ago, paulraphael said:

The surfaces will not keep their performance very long with frequent use, no matter what the marketing copy says.

 

Agreed.

 

Probably around a decade ago we bought a set of Vollrath PRO-HG non-stick cookware with a 25 year guarantee. There were two factors that decided the purchase. 1) They are NSF-rated. 2) The non-stick coating they using can take the high heat I like to use.  It hasn't held up perfectly but it has outlasted, by far, the other non-stick pans we have. This set is showing its age and I believe if I tried to get warranty replacements they would ask if I cleaned them in a dishwasher or some such thing. No matter. Outside of replacing non-stick skillets that I use all of the time I haven't bought any new non-stick cookware in years.  Since I am a serious thrift shopper I can tell you I find the skillets from this set all the time, and the non-stick coating is generally severely damaged.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

I have a heavy aluminum 12" skillet I brought over from Tennessee when I moved here in 1986 with a non stick interior. It looks pretty bad, but it's still my go to skillet for many things, like pan-broiling hamburgers. In places where the coating is damaged, there seems to be polymerized black oil. It still works, but I cook omelets in a newer WearEver of the same brand. They make the aluminum thinner now, and I don't like the fit and finish quite as well as the workhorse vintage one, but it is still a good pan and not very expensive. My heavy vintage one is stamped on the back with Manitowoc, WI, but the newer one is most likely made offshore as they are too embarrassed to say where it is manufactured. It certainly won't last as long, but still not a piece of junk, like so much stuff on offer these days.

 

I also have good and heavy steel WearEver cookie sheets, cake and bread pans with non-stick that seems to outlast other stuff, and can accept a polymerized coating after the initial non-stick finish begins to wear. The last skillet I bought had a lifetime warranty and it just might last my limited lifetime.

 

Le Creuset is way over my budget, and I can find cookware that serves me very well that is less expensive.

 

But yeah, if you get a decade out of a dedicated egg and crepe non-stick skillet, I'd say you are doing very well. I just cooked scrambled eggs in a WearEver nope Mirro 8", but same thing, and also stamped Manitowoc, that I purchased before 1999. I start scrambled eggs without butter in the pan, then add it later. The pan is still doing a beautiful job, but I've never cooked meat in it or cranked up the heat on it. I have a knack for maintaining stuff, though. I drove a Chevy Malibu I paid $750 for for over two decades, and much of my kitchenware is quite old too. They just made stuff better back then, I think, especially if you respected it with good care. 

[chromedome]

6 hours ago, Thanks for the Crepes said:

I have a heavy aluminum 12" skillet I brought over from Tennessee when I moved here in 1986 with a non stick interior. It looks pretty bad, but it's still my go to skillet for many things, like pan-broiling hamburgers. In places where the coating is damaged, there seems to be polymerized black oil. It still works, but I cook omelets in a newer WearEver of the same brand. They make the aluminum thinner now, and I don't like the fit and finish quite as well as the workhorse vintage one, but it is still a good pan and not very expensive.

 

I have a handful of heavy aluminum skillets left over from my restaurants, and they're in much the same state. Over time, as the non-stick surface eroded, they "seasoned" themselves with a nice, functional polymer coating without me doing anything much about it. Eggs don't skate quite as beautifully as they do on some of my other pans, but *will* cook without sticking and that's all I ask. These ones are a mix of brand names but appear to have come from the same factory; I picked them up from the Winners/Homesense chain of liquidation outlets over a 2-year period. 

[dcarch]

If you are careful in using non-stick cookware, they will last almost forever.

 

Except some cast iron, all other LC products are not made in France.

 

dcarch