Ever the naysayer here, I reject nonstick pans for two reasons other than what they might do in someone’s kitchen. A). The manufacturing processes for many nonstick pans are environmentally noxious. B). Their statistically shorter life hastens their being added to landfills, often with undesirable chemicals which may, eventually, leach and find their way into water tables shared with others. Personally, I dislike indoor birds enough that you might expect me to like Teflon.
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I already have been down the carbon steel pan route, and owned several Darto and De Buyer Mineral B Pro pans but sold them. Potential rusting pans are just not for me. I need to be able to soak my pans over night and you can’t do that with these pans. They simply were not for me - and when I love my ceramic non stick pans why bother ?
I respect your reason behind not using non stick pans, but nobody is perfect - we all pollute the environment just by living, and non stick pans make home cooking far more stress free for me, so I have learned to accept that I’m not perfect (I already knew that before thinking about using non stick pans).
On the other hand I don’t smoke, so I don’t pollute my surroudings with smoke and I don’t own a car, I use public transportation in Copenhagen where I live, so I don’t pollute my surroundings with car noise and other potential polution risks you have from cars and from the production of cars and car batteries.
Very few persons on this planet are perfect - I will continue to use my ceramic non stick pans and accept peoples judgement. I love my non stick pans as much as I love my 2.5 copper pans.
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I got a few hard nitrided carbon steel pans. Also have a de Buyer blue steel pan (similar to hard nitrided). Neither rust and can be soaked in water, although I rarely have to do so. The hardened surface makes using a spatula on stuck on stuff easy and does no damage, unlike ceramic. Both are huge improvements over regular carbon steel pans. The chain mail scrubber does zero damage as well.
But I agree, tossing two pans after 1.5 years just seemed wasteful and senseless to me. But no blame here, you have to cook and eat.
My problem is that my wife - by herself - often clean my pans after I have made dinner for us or the day after.
When I owned my Darto and De Buyer MInewral B Pro pans, she had trouble knowing which pans to wash how and what not. So when she soaked my CS pans over night, the Darto and De Buyer carbon steel pans had rusted badly and I had to bring out steelwool to clean them and season them over again.
Also often my CS got small rust spots just from sitting out in the open (not in closed cabinets) and I live in pretty cold Denmark, but we still have pretty high humidity levels here. I suffer from OCD and I hate small rust spots on my pans. I simply decided to sell all my CS pans and will never go back to them again - NEVER EVER.
I’m a cookware collector, and I probably own 45-50 pans and pots, 6-8 of them are ceramic non stick pans. I have no problem replacing my non stick pans every other 4-6 years. No problem at all for me.
So far my Mauviel M’Stone ceramic 24 cm sauter pan, which I bought in 2017 have hold up just fine and I use that pan 1-2 times a week year round. My Demeyere Alu Pro non stick pans also seem to be quite durable, but of course I’ll have to replace them at some point in time.
I feel the same about carbon steel knives, even though they are easier to sharpen and stay sharp for longer, I’ll never going to own a carbon steel knife - it’s simply not for me.
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Oh, it’s a wife situation and some OCD. If I were into collecting anything, it would be off limits to a spouse, and I’d follow the same rule reversed. BTW, after helping clean my uncle’s place after he passed, then my dad’s stuff and now my mom’s….I’ve decided I’m going to try and get rid of stuff so relatives don’t have to clean things up. Your neighbors to the North have something called Swedish Death Cleaning. I think I have some time but this makes sense to me.
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Learning what works for you is such a great thing. Although it may have been (mostly) inert, think of the stuff we tried and chucked. I am so glad to have learned, circa 1972, what I like and spent the ensuing half century plus collecting it.
If collecting is your thing, go for it. My mom collected things….literally tons of books and magazines. My thing is, then you have to care and store stuff….and growing up with it. I do save or collect a few things, like this butter dish my mom gave a dozen years ago. She also left me an orange Descoware dutch oven like Julia Child’s.
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We should all cook with whatever we like to use. I’m judging no one.
My point was not aimed at the potential harm non stick coatings does to the environment or our body’s. I try to avoid them myself partly because of those specifik reasons. But I’m also aware that used correctly. Both ceramic and Teflon has traditionally bin considered safe. Maybe that is changing.
My point was simply that considering the lifetime of non stick coatings( traditional non stick last longer then ceramic) it make no sense using expensive materials like copper as a base for a nonstick coating.
Now… regarding foods that benefits from being made in non stick cookware. My personal experience is that there is nothing I can’t make in a well seasoned carbon steel or cast iron pan, with minimal amounts of oil and butter. I simply don’t experience the problem. And I have made many many dishes of frikadeller or starchy potato dishes in those pans. It’s simply a matter of practice and habits, and my experience is that temperature is the key. Acid meals I make in stainless.
I always wash my pans after dinner. So no rusting here. But I see it might be a problem if the misses soaks them over night.
Because of the reasons mentioned above, the advantages of non stick cookware is simply not big enough for me to use them. But we should all use what we gives us joy in the kitchen.
Looks dang good!
Always blows me away to see any nonstick in a pot.
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