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Safe cookware and bakeware?


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Hi, So I'm looking for safe cookware and bakeware for everyday usage. I have done a bit of research and have been enlightened by this article on safe cookware. I'm avoiding aluminium (reacts to acidic food), nonstick Teflon (PFOA), stainless steel (Nickel). I am keen on using glass and enamel coated cookware and bakeware, as they are nonreactive. What are some brands that are safe and do not contain lead? Any one has their own good or bad experiences with these? Thank you and have a nice day!
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Corning makes a "Visions" line of cookware, but I can't recommend it for stove-top use.

My mom had this (click)ir?t=egulletcom-20&l=am2&o=1&a=B004A2OBS sauce pan and tried using it to make something simple like gravy. It always, without fail, burned at the bottom.

Good luck with your search.

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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5 minutes ago, Toliver said:

Corning makes a "Visions" line of cookware, but I can't recommend it for stove-top use.

My mom had this (click)ir?t=egulletcom-20&l=am2&o=1&a=B004A2OBS sauce pan and tried using it to make something simple like gravy. It always, without fail, burned at the bottom.

Good luck with your search.

 

Years ago I had set of two pans very similar to what you linked to.  I hated them, they were a b---h to clean.  I got rid of them not long after I got them.

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36 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

 

Years ago I had set of two pans very similar to what you linked to.  I hated them, they were a b---h to clean.  I got rid of them not long after I got them.

 

Ditto! The set was a gift from my MIL. Good intentions, but they are long gone. Kept the MIL! :D

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Like most of the others who've commented, I found the Visions cookware to be a massive PITA. It retains heat almost as long as cast iron so the likelihood of burning yourself is pretty high, and at least two of mine went bye-bye because my ex burned herself and flinched, causing the pot to shatter into a gazillion nasty, high-speed shards. The heat retention meant that foods inevitably baked on, unless you decant the food immediately into serving dishes and then pour boiling water into them to keep the food from hardening (not tap water, a mistake which accounted for another of the pots). I eventually discarded the survivors, though I did keep the lids for use on other cookware. 

 

Just to play devil's advocate, I'll point out that when enamel crazes it's not entirely food-safe either. It *does* take a while, with good enamelware. 

 

Life is just filled with compromises. 

“Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too.” - William Cowper, The Task, Book Three

 

"Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition...The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.” - psychologist David Dunning

 

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I'm pretty much down to enameled cast iron, regular cast iron, carbon steel and stainless steel. Have just moved to stainless mixing bowls since one of my plastic ones sprang a leak. I do have a couple of glass Pyrex bowls I use mostly to proof bread in, and some Pyrex baking dishes. And one noteworthy Le Creuset ceramic lidded baker that I would have never purchased, but won in a recipe contest; it's a casserole dish for holidays, or anytime I want to serve something that really needs to stay pretty hot. I can fill it with boiling water for a few minutes, dump that, put the food in (if I don't bake it in it) and set the lid on, and it stays piping hot for close to an hour.

 

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Don't ask. Eat it.

www.kayatthekeyboard.wordpress.com

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  • 3 weeks later...

This thread made me think of these old stove top aluminum percolators. These are a six-cup and a two-cup. When I would visit my father (he passed away almost 20 years ago) I'd always make a pot of coffee in the larger one. He swore by them, said they made the best coffee ever. Not so sure about that, but they really weren't bad. You really have to work out your timing - let it perk for 5 minutes? Six? I always loved watching the color change in the glass cap as the coffee brewed. Maybe I'll try the two-cup today.

 

ETA: I just had a cup I made in the two-cup percolator. Brewed for six minutes. As Dale Cooper would say, it was a damn fine cup of coffee.

coffee pots.jpg

Edited by cakewalk (log)
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1 hour ago, cakewalk said:

This thread made me think of these old stove top aluminum percolators. These are a six-cup and a two-cup. When I would visit my father (he passed away almost 20 years ago) I'd always make a pot of coffee in the larger one. He swore by them, said they made the best coffee ever. Not so sure about that, but they really weren't bad. You really have to work out your timing - let it perk for 5 minutes? Six? I always loved watching the color change in the glass cap as the coffee brewed. Maybe I'll try the two-cup today.

 

 

 

 

I remember my Mom making coffee in a stove top percolator (I think it was a Revere Ware), she often got involved in preparing something else and the pot would boil over on the stove.  

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1 hour ago, lindag said:

I remember my Mom making coffee in a stove top percolator (I think it was a Revere Ware), she often got involved in preparing something else and the pot would boil over on the stove.  

:smile: Yes, they really need to be watched. As soon as the water boils, you have to lower the flame to a simmer while it perks. Mine aren't Revere Ware. The smaller one has no name on it at all. The larger one is stamped on the bottom with the name Comet. (Never heard of it.) The bottoms of the handles (which are plastic) on both of them are partially melted away, undoubtedly from too high a flame as it sat on the stove. I am waiting for @andiesenji to weigh in here, I have no doubt she has a stash of these things in all sizes! 

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4 hours ago, cakewalk said:

This thread made me think of these old stove top aluminum percolators. These are a six-cup and a two-cup. When I would visit my father (he passed away almost 20 years ago) I'd always make a pot of coffee in the larger one. He swore by them, said they made the best coffee ever. Not so sure about that, but they really weren't bad. You really have to work out your timing - let it perk for 5 minutes? Six? I always loved watching the color change in the glass cap as the coffee brewed. Maybe I'll try the two-cup today.

 

ETA: I just had a cup I made in the two-cup percolator. Brewed for six minutes. As Dale Cooper would say, it was a damn fine cup of coffee.

coffee pots.jpg

 

 

Best coffee in the world is from one of those, on a Coleman stove, about dawn when you're camping.

 

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Don't ask. Eat it.

www.kayatthekeyboard.wordpress.com

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