How often do you change frypan?

I also had a boss born laying pipe. Back in the old days, he tells me, they used to let them lay one easy joint in the morning. Then they would turn on the water and expect them to stay ahead of it.

I'm pretty sure this is the same one that had to walk 5 miles to school. Uphill both ways. In the snow.

Well, I've used non-stick pans for years and haven't died yet or gotten ill or grown a second nose so I don't think it's a big deal. Scaremongering is what it is.

They also say you shouldn't eat from chipped plates but people seem to do it all the time without adverse effects...

Given all the pesticides, gases released from plastic, acid rain, fluoride, etc we're constantly being subjected to and warned about, we're all going to die or mutate from some horrible side effect anyway, so what's the big deal about an egg cooked in a scratched non-stick pan?

I have one small non-stick pan which I won in a contest. When it dies, I will never have another.

Non-stick pans should never be used without oil or butter, contrary to popular opinion. I didn't have a dishwasher until I moved into this house in 2007 (and I find they're not all -- to borrow my parents' phrase, "They're cracked up to be") but I would never put anything made of wood or aluminum or with a non-stick surface or a knife with an edge in the machine.

You seem to have a lot of kitchen rules, POM. Me, I just do whatever.

As I've mentioned here before, I'm related to someone who worked for the company that invented the non-stick surface. He refused to let his family go near the stuff. He thought it was like slowly poisoning your family and was disturbed that this product was allowed to be sold without warnings. He thought there should at least be warnings about using it to prepare food for growing children. The original company had really great lobbyists.

One of my neighbors was a endocrinologist at Children's Hospital, Boston. He didn't allow the use of non-stick pans and he advised against having a microwave oven in any house in which there were children under 10.

I worked at Williams-Sonoma for 8 years and attended seminars conducted by the manufacturers. If you think I have many rules, you haven't talked to people more to the left of me!

Doing whatever simply is not safe. It's also expensive. At the above job, I saw people replacing knives regularly because they used the dishwasher. Anyone who can not run a soapy sponge over a knife, then rinse it, but must put it in a dishwasher is an idiot. They generally became angry with the poor sales clerk who told them to hand wash knives.

My dishwasher died a few years ago and I confess I do not miss it. Dishwasher detergent is extremely hard on cutlery and glassware.

Re: frying pans, the non-stick I'm seeing these days claims to be ceramic. I have one high quality non-stick frying pan (so I can use less fat -- I agree, some is necessary) and the rest are cast iron including a griddle which I LOVE.

I have no idea if they are ceramic and what ceramic means in this case. Coated cast iron is coated with ceramic.

I do use my dishwasher but I use a phosphate-free liquid dishwasher detergent. I figured out that the powdered stuff doesn't dissolve and abrades glass and ceramic. Again, we were told at Williams-Sonoma to advise the use of liquid detergents in machines for that reason.

I use my dishwasher for -
top rack - storing glass jars which I save to keep leftovers in instead of using plastic
bottom rack - cleaning products, parchment paper etc, and paper bags for popping corn

http://www.yourhome.ca/homes/article/683159



I have one pan with a Thermolon coating. I much prefer it to old-fashioned Teflon. I think the last pan with Teflon got dumped here a few years ago. Generally, I prefer a well-seasoned pan to a chemically coated one.

The oldest pan I have in use was one of mrs. hamburger's. It's a bit over 50 years old and has a beautiful seasoned finish. I've never found a modern coating that was anything like it.

I use my dishwasher for washing dishes.

You always were just a bit different!

My neighbours and I have lived in this area for 12 years - we moved in when the villas were new and dishwashers came with the kitchen set up. They told me proudly the other day that they'd never used the dishwasher! wtf?? Mine's just about worn out.

People think hand washing saves water and electric, but if the dishwasher was made in the last 15 years there are no real savings, as long as you run it full.

This is probably why we die so much younger than we did in the middle ages.

I like the way my mother washed dishes, without using running water. You really need a double bowled sink and space on either side to accomplish that.

I actually run the washer at 3/4 full at times simply because this household uses more cups and bowls than larger pieces. I run out of small one first!

Thanks for the good info, beth.

I know that modern ceramics are not necessarily fired clay. So many other things are thrown into the mix to produce ceramics that won't crack at very high temperatures.

I am my dishwasher. You don't have to plug me in or nuttin'.

It looks like the answer to JThompson's question is that depends. Cast iron pans can and do become heirlooms. I think my grandkids might use my All-Clad and my steel lined copper when I am pushing up daisies.* It is had to tell about the Le Creuset. Perhaps.

I understand that French blue steel, a product that needs handling in the same manner as cast iron, can last for several generations as well.

Non-stick is probably a short-term possession and is the sort of pan who ever advised JT originally had in mind.

Wow!

The * part was left off! How odd!

Here it is:

* I have had tinned copper. It is almost impossible to get it relined in America. I do own several pieces of steel lined copper and love it although I have not used it since I moved in 2007.

At my old house, where the electric stove was in its death throes for several years, the huge oven died once and my then-boyfriend put in a new heating element. It worked for two years before dying again. At that point, I had one burner, so I cooked for the family with one burner and an 11" wide oven.

I had an oval copper pan with a steel lining that fit into the oven, so I would start the meat in that pan and then put it in the oven to free up cooking space for the sides.

It is still in a packing box. Maybe, if I spent less time here and worked only five days/week, it would be out.

ANother thing that happened twice was a burner exploded. When my kids were still at home, I had sleep-over guests every weekend. Sundays meant pancakes or French toast: cheap and easy to prepare foods for a crowd.

I was using my first good piece of cookware, bought when I was 24 or 25, a German-made stainless steel pan with a lovely slope to the sides, a thick sandwich bottom and a bakelite handle (its only flaw). The manufacturer was either Tischbein or Fischbein: the letters were embossed in the bakelite and were so tiny it was impossible to read.

I put the pan on the burner and turned on the electricity, gently enough to allow the pan to heat for the bacon. (I never turn a burner up full -- BTW, All-Clad says that is a no-no.) The burner ruptured! A piece of the coil went through the sandwich and the stainless steel.

I was so glad that I never made a practice of allowing the boys to fix breakfast and that there was no bacon and hot grease in the pan.