# I've ditched teflon pans for good............



## where I want to (Oct 28, 2008)

I've always been faintly concerned with teflon pans. They are great for cooking something fast with less fat but they always deteriorate fast too. I got tired of buying new pans after the non-stick wore off in places. Not to mention it worried me where that coating ended up- in people?
So I got some stainles steel saute pans. I took me awhile to learn to use them well. Using high heat and fast cooking doesn't work so well. But those pans with the extra thick bottoms are great.
I have learned to heat up the pan, put food in to fry, then turn it down right away to cook more slowly. This tends to keep the pan from having burnt food stuck to it so cleaning is easier.
It's been a couple of years now but my stainless pans look like new. I will never buy a teflon pan again.


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## sss3 (Jul 15, 2007)

Teflon is so bad for us. Heard as soon as one starts peeling; it's a carcinogen. Throw away. Heard recently on news; FDA going to try and get a ban on producing them they are so bad. Probably made in China.


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

I like the revereware pans, cast skillets....James


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## where I want to (Oct 28, 2008)

One of the things with teflon pans is that if I did manage to find one I liked, I could never find another one like it when the old one went bad. I have a drawer full of cheaply made teflon pans (some where pretty expensive) that I did not like. Now I use the same two pans day after day.


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## ChristieAcres (Apr 11, 2009)

I have stainless steel and cast iron cookware, use both everyday!


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## laurajean23 (Nov 28, 2012)

Good for you for ditching it for good! Teflon is nasty stuff. I transitioned just two years ago and now I use stainless, glass and cast iron. I've fallen in love with cast iron.


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## Warwalk (May 25, 2011)

I always marvel at these Japanese steakhouses... or the Waffle House, for that matter! They have what seems like stainless steel as a cook surface, and daily they grind out shrimp, steak, chicken, eggs, bacon, sausages, hashbrowns... and by the end of the day, having served more patrons than the average home might serve in a month of sunday's, they clean up with little more than a wet rag and a pumice stone... and do the same thing all over again the next day! Now ~that's~ what I'd like to have. No pan at all. Just a gorgeous cook surface like that.


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## Pearl B (Sep 27, 2008)

Stainless and ceramic for me. I read up on ceramic pans and decided to give them a try. I love em.


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## SadieG (Jan 12, 2013)

I've been married for 37 years and still use the same stainless steel Revere Ware pan set we got as a wedding gift. We bought a second set with heavier bottoms about 18 years ago to add more pans for those times when we cook a lot at once. Both the original copper bottom set and the heavy bottom set are wonderful!


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## Shames73 (Dec 17, 2012)

We use cast iron skillets and Dutch oven, glass pots I have found at thrift shops cheap, and stainless steal. I'm slowly trying to rid my kitchen of plastic and toxic metal. I do have one of those electric big griddle things that I'm not so sure about but we only use it once a year if we have a ton of family over and I have to knock out 100 pancakes quick . Getting rid of plastic I find way harder. Slowly I tossed all those plastic storage containers and switched to glass with rubber lids. We use rubber, stainless, and wooden utensils. I still worry about all the years I have been cooking with poisons..


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## wannabechef (Nov 20, 2012)

lorichristie said:


> I have stainless steel and cast iron cookware, use both everyday!


This is me...

I had some expensive Calphalon non stick and when I was away (long story) they were destroyed by my MIL who was living in my house at the time. I tossed them and started using my cast iron and stainless and will never go back.


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## simi-steading (Sep 27, 2012)

Teflon pans are bad.. You over heat them, and they put off toxic fumes. people who have birds typically don't have teflon pans. I've known a few people who have killed their birds by over heating a teflon pan... 

If it kills birds, what's it do to people?

I use cast iron and cast aluminum pans... The heavy cast aluminum pans like they use in restaurants are great..


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## Vosey (Dec 8, 2012)

I'm also in the transition from teflon to stainless, I've been concerned for years, but was just waiting out the pans and saving money. I love my new big stainless saute pan I requested for Christmas! I've always used cast iron, but it's not great for everything.

Does anyone know a good source for affordable glass "tupperware"? All I can find are pricey, small glass containers. I have lots of glass jars but those are often too small or in use to store dehydrated food.


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## Melesine (Jan 17, 2012)

I ditched mine about 5 years ago too. I went back to bare cast iron and added enameled cast iron, clad stainless and assorted clay pots. I want to get some copper pans also.


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## Shames73 (Dec 17, 2012)

Vosey said:


> I'm also in the transition from teflon to stainless, I've been concerned for years, but was just waiting out the pans and saving money. I love my new big stainless saute pan I requested for Christmas! I've always used cast iron, but it's not great for everything.
> 
> Does anyone know a good source for affordable glass "tupperware"? All I can find are pricey, small glass containers. I have lots of glass jars but those are often too small or in use to store dehydrated food.


I found a ton of mine at yard sales or amazon. Around Xmas time there were quite a few stores that had sales on sets of glass storage ware and bed bath and beyond always has a 20% coupon. Keep an eye out


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## Evons hubby (Oct 3, 2005)

I havent used a teflon pan of any kind in a lotta years. My favorites are a couple of antique steel frying pans, some well seasoned cast iron, and at the bottom of my list is the stainless. (its too much trouble to keep shiny bright) I also shy away from aluminum pans.... the acids in a lot of foods will leach the aluminum into your food.


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## soulsurvivor (Jul 4, 2004)

We have 3 different non-stick skillets that we use on a regular basis and no, they're not hitting the trash anytime soon. They were expensive on sale and are top line cookware. They've been properly used and taken care of and show no signs of deterioration. We use cast iron skillets for the oven and grill, but the non-stick is top of stove, hand wash/dry only. There's an 8" omelet, 10" open skillet, and a covered 14" deep skillet with a helper handle. I bought the larger skillet at Macys in Atlanta back in the 90s and hand carried it on the plane trip home. It was a $200 skillet on half price sale and is our chicken frying skillet. All 3 skillets are Calphalon non-stick on heavy duty stainless steel.


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## LonelyNorthwind (Mar 6, 2010)

I'm a revere ware and cast iron cook too. Back when teflon came out I didn't trust that stuff and I'd never use it, margarine either.
The remnants of old gold miner's & trappers cabins are scattered all over this country - almost always I find cast iron in the middle of the pile of rubble that was once someone's home. It's amazing how many are still usable after a little refurbishing. Those are my favorites. As I use each one I remember where I found it and always have an imaginary story of it's former owner.
My kids & grandkids hate that stuff tho 'cause it's so heavy. One day gd tried to carry my biggest dutch oven full of chili & exclaimed "holy carp, gramma..I'd never want to get in a fight with you!" she was 22 at the time


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## JawjaBoy (Jan 21, 2013)

Most used cookware in our kitchen is our Revere stainless, cast iron and one old enamelware pot I use for chili and spaghetti sauce. We did pick up an enameled cast iron dutch oven and are loving it so far. In the future, I see more cast iron finding a home here.


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## Mistoftime (May 3, 2009)

Good idea to throw the teflon out. We have never used or ownd any teflon coated cookware. The concerns were just too risky from the begining.


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## MelonBar (Dec 27, 2012)

He he he. 

What's Teflon?


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## MelonBar (Dec 27, 2012)

Anyone else with a nicely seasoned cast iron skillet roll your eyes at the "Ultimate egg test" in that non-stick cookware commercial?

Plus not just the health concerns just the fact that you can buy a cast iron pan at a yard sale for $2 and it will last forever. While you pay $40 for a non-stick Teflon pan and it last six months before the kids who have been told otherwise scratch it up cooking with forks and over heating it.


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## MelonBar (Dec 27, 2012)

I'm still on a quest to find the elusive 24" cast iron deep dish pizza pan!


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## wannabechef (Nov 20, 2012)

MelonBar said:


> Anyone else with a nicely seasoned cast iron skillet roll your eyes at the "Ultimate egg test" in that non-stick cookware commercial?
> 
> Plus not just the health concerns just the fact that you can buy a cast iron pan at a yard sale for $2 and it will last forever. While you pay $40 for a non-stick Teflon pan and it last six months before the kids who have been told otherwise scratch it up cooking with forks and over heating it.


No probs frying eggs in my cast iron!


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## Horseyrider (Aug 8, 2010)

Teflon is nasty. But getting rid of the pans is only one way to stop eating it. It's also in every fast food wrapper, the tissues the vendor uses to grab donuts for you, the chicken bucket, it's all over. Years ago, vendors found out that people prefer to buy foods that don't look greasy. The teflon in the packaging eliminates that look.

I remember reading some years back that virtually every American has teflon in their blood. I thought that was pretty creepy.

I cook on cast iron and stainless steel. I used to have a Revereware set that was so old it had bakelite handles. The set was given to me by my mother, who had purchased it from a neighbor in the 1970s that was moving to a nursing home. The neighbor was in her 90s at the time. I'd still be cooking on it if I hadn't bought a glass top range. Some of the pans had lost their flat bottoms. So I gave it to my daughter, and that set's enjoying another family's use.

Pans shouldn't "wear out." They're PANS, for crying out loud.


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## Marilyn (Aug 2, 2006)

Oh MelonBar, I saw your pizza pan! Travelled a good distance to an auction 2 yrs ago that had advertised a lot of Griswold cast iron. I wanted that pizza pan. It was gorgeous, even had bale handles on each side. That pizza pan went for $1100!!! And the goof that bought it was just going to hang it on a wall! I didn't think he should be allowed to keep it if all he was going to do with it was hang it on a wall.


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## Crikket (Sep 17, 2012)

My honey got me a complete set of Wolfgang Puck stainless steel cookware 2 years ago c: I LOVE it! Made perfect salmon the first night I had it! Will have it forever and it shines up real nice and purty. I have been on the lookout for some cast iron pieces tho', will have to hit some yard/barn/estate sales this summer and see what I can find c:


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## stef (Sep 14, 2002)

I'm not trying to be argumentative, but I am always suspicious of any claims made by reports that have links to their own products and services. And that's what most of the fear mongerers of the anti teflon links turn out to be: pitchmen for something they want to sell, and what more effective method than to frighten people?

Here's a link from the American Cancer Society, who certainly want to give the best advice possible, and what they have to say about Teflon cooking utensils. 

http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/othercarcinogens/athome/teflon-and-perfluorooctanoic-acid--pfoa

If you got rid of your Teflon coated products and you're comfortable using other cooking utensils, that's great. Enjoy. But when the ACS says there's no proof that pfoas are cancer causing in humans, then don't let scare tactics cause you to buy services or products that prey on fear.
Here's a direct quote from the article:


_"Should I take measures to protect myself, such as not using my Teflon-coated pans?_


_Other than the possible risk of fumes from an overheated pan, there are no known risks to humans from using Teflon-coated cookware. While PFOA is used in making Teflon, it is not present (or is present in extremely small amounts) in Teflon-coated products. "_

_(when they say "overheated pan", they mean 500 F or over. Which means someone forgot to turn off the heat under their skillet! )_

If you have concerns, I hope you'll take the time to read the article. 

Here's a link to WebMD, another reliable online source with nothing to sell, and their current opinion about pfoas:

http://www.webmd.com/cancer/features/teflon-pans


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## HorseMom (Jul 31, 2005)

Sometime around 2003, give or take a year, I got an awesome Wolfgang Puck stainless steel cooking set on sale for $25!!!!! It has 3 non stick coated skillets two 8" and a 10". They still look like new. I love all the pans that came with the set. I'm leery of the non stick coating, but I can't afford cast iron, which I would LOVE to have! 

Stef, I also rool my eyes at the ads, don't use teflon, don't use cast iron, don't use blah, blah, blah!
Heidi


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## where I want to (Oct 28, 2008)

It's not a matter of believing what I read. I frankly have not read anything about teflon except for not letting it burn. As if anyone purposely burnt any pan. Or as if no one ever forgets and lets something burn.
But I did look at the pans I had and saw that most teflon, even the All Clad that cost an arm and leg, soon had the surface deteriorate. Who knows what happens with the "missing" teflon and what ever chemicals are used with it. (Rhetorical question.)
And who knows what the effect of the burned teflon surface crumbling into food will do.
Stainless took a bit of getting used to- for me less heat and a touch slower cooking time. But I also have not burned anything since I changed over. Cooking before meant switching onto high heat and sometimes not keeping a close check on it- oops burn food but easy to clean out with teflon so no biggy.
I can also grab any spoon or turner I want without worrying about scratching the surface so it has meant less plastic cooking utensiles to accidently melt and add their fumes to the air. In fact I have never had to buy a new cooking utensile since I changed those over to metal too.
So no new pans to buy and no new utensiles to buy and no doubts about safety. Better food. All to the good.


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## Ardie/WI (May 10, 2002)

Quite frankly, you'd have to arm wrestle me to the ground and beat me unconscious to get my teflon pans away.

I take care of them and they don't peel or chip or scratch! One thing I learned is to not put them in the dishwasher. DW detergent causes the surface to detiorate sp?).


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