Scratched my non stick pan, is it still ok to use?
 

I know you're not supposed to cut food while cooking in a pan, but I did anyway while cooking sausage. I ended up scratching it a little bit. Is it still safe to use?

With careful cleaning, it should be fine. The more important worry, perhaps, is that teflon appears to be showing up more and more in the remains of the dead during autopsies.

its fine to use, I have an omlette pan that *used* to be nonstick, now its covered in gashes because of idiot roommates.

It will still work fine, but if you scrach it more, it just gets harder and harder to clean and cook with properly (food gets stuck in the crack, etc)

Nooo. Teflon showing up inside of people, that is true and not good. Throw it away!

A lot of pans arent using teflon anymore, it depends on the make. If you clean it off well, it is ok, I work in a kitchen and we have one pan that *used* to be teflon coated.

It has had the hell scratched out of it, but because theres no teflon actually loose, its still ok to serve in.

Just be careful, if it was a good pan, keep it around, if it was a cheap pan, go to goodwill and buy some calphalon, dangit :D

Can't say whether it's okay to cook with anymore, but you do have to realize that no matter what you do with a non-stick pan you will ingest teflon over time. Frankly teflon pans in my opinion are pretty crappy; short lifetimes and iffy whether they're good for you. I just use cast iron; they're cheap, last forever, are just as non-stick as teflon, and the only stuff you ingest off of them other than the food is some extra iron which is good for you.

It's a T-FAL pan. Does anyone know if they use teflon? The scratches aren't deep scratches but are visible.

i am pretty sure that T-FAL utilizes teflon coating in their product. I am not directly familiar with T-FAL, but I did some searching and found no direct link, eg, TFAL uses TEFLON, but many people saying that t-fal is the best teflon pan etc etc. Before you cook anything, just get teh fucker hot. Use a hot pan and hot oil or whatever, and you should have minimal problems.

Aye, I'd be lost without my cast iron pans. Not that I'm too concerned about ingesting some Teflon - hell, in my opinion one trip to McDonalds is infinitely worse for us than a year of ingesting a small portion of teflon. I just prefer how everything cooks in cast iron.

Ah, just get a big heavy bastard steel frying pan. It builds up a natural non-stick, can be used as a weapon against burglars and you'll still have it for many years to come.

And you can sit there 60 years from now and tell your grandkids all about your wonderous old steel frying pan that's still going strong; thus confirming your senility and giving them an excuse to put you in a home.

Ingesting teflon? Yikes, I had not heard that. Crap. And I thought it was the fiber all this time.

Guess I'll get some cast iron soon. Thanks for the tip.

do the handles on cast iron pans get burning hot? i'd like to know before i get one so i can buy some kind of holder so i don't burn my hand.

Rule of thumb:

Scratches aren't bad, until there are too many. If you have to ask if you have too many scratches, toss it.

If it's peeling, or the scratch has widened, get rid of it.

Teflon is PTFE (Polytetrafluoroethylene) not good to ingest.

Go out and get yourself a set of mid-priced stainless pans. I bout a set 3 years ago, and they are warrantied for life. The whole set cost less than 250$ and I will NEVER have to replace them.

Random Fact: An overheated Teflon pan, left on the stove can and will kill domesticated birds that you have in your house.


-SF

I have the 'martha stewart' set of stainless steel cookware - I find that stuff sticks like crazy to the frying pans so much that I never use them anymore and use my nasty scratched up teflon pans.

Any suggestions?

If you use oil, you should put the oil in when the pan is hot rather than allowing the oil to heat up with the pan. This is what I do and I rarely have things stick.
Works good in a wok too.

You have a GREAT set of pans.

Lemme give you a few rules..

Always pre-heat your pan.
*Before you are ready to cook, put the pan on low-medium heat for 2-3 minutes.
Always use a little oil on the pan.
*After the pan is pre-heated (see above) put about a teaspoon of olive oil in the pan and tilt the pan back and forth to coat.

You will be almost guaranteed to not have anything stick.

An old cooking genius used to say, "Hot pan, Cold Oil, Food won't stick" I have always remembered that, and nothing has stuck.


-SF

buy a new pan... they aren't all that expensive... live and learn.

we have those kinda pans, they have some scratches but nothing big. if it doesn't seem to bad it probably isn't but if it gets worse i'd get a new pan.

the handles on cast iron pans do get pretty hot but it takes a while. if your just cooking some eggs or something for a few min the handle wont be too hot to hold. but if you have it on the heat 20 min or more it will be pretty hot. i always just use a small towel to move my pan around. the good thing about cast iron is its so heavy you dont need to hold it still when your mixing stuff up in it =) i wont ever go back to the fancy new pans im hooked on cast iron forever. =)

i love cast iron.

it's one of the handiest things i keep around in the kitchen, but it can be a real bitch to care for, if you don't know what you're doing.

season the pan before you use it. Scrub it out, clean it thuroughly, cover it in a high temp oil (canola is what i use) and then bake it for 30 minutes or so in a 350 degree oven. Take it out, then leave it alone to cool. if you don't do this, it'll rust pretty quickly.

the second thing is that you HAVE to use some kind of oil in it every time. if you don't have the oil, it will stick. if it sticks, you have to clean it. if you have to clean it.. you need to reseason the pan.

cleaning of cast iron is simple: take rough salt, and scrub the pan with it. toss the salt out after you're done.

simple.

alumninum and stainless steel pans are lighter and easier to use since you can scrube them out, abuse them, and cheaply replace them.

It really is amazing how slippery a properly seasoned iron skillet can be. As long as you don't use soap on it or cook really acidic foods in it, it will just keep getting better.

get some good all clad or some other top brand and stay away from teflon unless you are making eggs. nordic ware is good for that. let the pan heat, add oil, let the food release when cooked and you won't have a sticking problem.