Over my years I’ve owned many types of non-stick pans. Judge me as you see fit, but I’ve owned Teflon, stainless steel, ceramic, and cast iron pans, but none of them seem to stay “non-stick” for more than a few years. I’ve had the best luck with cast iron, but my wife doesn’t like to use them because they’re heavy. I hand wash them all with soap and water, but they all seem to lose their ability to shed off what I cook in them. Does anyone have any recommendations for a good non-stick pan?
EDIT: It seems like the consensus is on cast iron, or ceramic steel. I just looked it up, and there are “slim” cast iron pans, so maybe that’ll be a happy medium. Thanks for all the anecdotes and suggestions folks.
Stainless steel is my favorite. I would bet you’re not using it right. They need to be preheated before cooking. Once you can get a bead of water dancing on the pan, after that, everything slides right off.
And I’m pretty sure soap is a no no on cast iron, but I’m no expert on that.
You can use regular dish soap on a cast iron. The big no-nos are soaking for an extended period of time and not hand-drying after washing
I always heat my cast after washing and ill sometimes do a light season with some oil once the water is evaporated. Tbh i rarely wash the cast though. I tend to give it a really good scrape with a metal spatula or scraper then its good to go again until its due for another scraping.
You really should wash it with dish soap after each use. It doesn’t hurt the seasoning and it keeps the pan from developing a ‘flavor’ from rancid oil or carry over flavors from prior meals.
I pretty much only ever cook eggs on it and i don’t notice any rancid flavor
Not using soap is nasty. The seasoning is actually the polymerized oil so it don’t give two shits about soap and only comes off with a lye based oven cleaner in my experience. You should apply a thin coat of oil after washing them but I haven’t found that to mater much vs doing it next time you cook.
Stripping and re-seasoning a cast iron pan is super satisfying too! Strip it down by your mean of choice, coat with oil and put in pre-heated oven upside down. Repeat a few times as it stops being tacky/smoking and you’ll have a pretty golden pan that is good as new!
Stainless is what I use for all my pots though. Great stuff!
My original post was misleading. I normally just wipe the cast iron with a towel to clean it, rinse it with a minimal amount of water and then season it again before I use it again. I’m leaving heavily towards cast iron being the answer, I just need to get my family to come around.
The hardest part is getting everyone on the same page about using it and caring for it correctly. Stainless steel is my choice because the maintenance is not something that can be messed up. If someone burns something on it, you do whatever you want to it. Soak it, scrape it, use whatever chemicals you want.
If you feel like your stainless steel isn’t as good as it used to be, give it a good baking soda scour, rinse, then wash it in vinegar (I’ll usually heat it up on the stove a bit to force it along). The baking soda will scratch off any carbonized food and the vinegar will dissolve any minerals. Both polish and restore the shine on stainless steel
Like others have said, check out carbon steel. It might offer the right compromise to satisfy everyone.
I also own a “LiFe pan.” lightweight cast iron - the name is a pun. Picked it up on a whim at Home Goods years ago, because I was curious about it.
www.amazon.com/iko-lightweight-stainless-vegetable-pre-seasoned/dp/b01lonjtps
It’s now one of my favorite pans. Seasons just like cast iron, and has built up a really nice polymerized coating over the years.
They’ve never been popular, so I don’t know how easy it would be to find one.
I’ve seen two kinds of lightweight cast iron: Standard, or with a non-stick coating. Do not get coated ones. If you try it, get the standard.