Need savings advice on non-stick skillets

[QuarterMillionMan]

Basically to fry an egg easy over and flip in the air without using a spatula. I have a copper 8" frying pan but it sticks to the pan like glue (worst skillet ever made). On Amazon Blue Diamond is about $14. T-Fal is $23. I also tried a Rachel Ray $20 from Walmart but eggs would stick as well so I tossed it. I found the cheap made in China $7 non-stick to work well but noticed the coating disintegrating so I tossed it out of an abundance of caution to avoid getting cancer from the toxic lining. Any advice?

[bjl584]

I've never had too much luck with non stick pans.
I gave up and just use olive oil spray.

[riverwed070707]

Seconding that non-stick pans are a gimmick and wear out more quickly than alternative cookware. I prefer cast iron or stainless. That said, non-stick are not really intended to be used without any lubricant - you should be able to add a super small amount of oil, a dash of salt and it will greatly improve your results.

[myrdale]

Personally I have a Le Creuset enameled cast iron skillet and love it.... but they are $250, not $25.

Honestly the eggs and bacon will probably get you before the teflon lining does, but I've become overly paranoid about the amount of that stuff that is in the environment (including ground water and everything we eat).

[disneysteve]

Any decent non-stick should do the job. Not the el cheapo ones from Target or Walmart. Get a quality piece from Williams Sonoma or Sur La Table or Macys or online. Calphalon. Cuisinart. All Clad. Some other quality brand. They heat evenly and have coatings that won’t wear off. Use an adequate amount of oil. Never go near it with metal utensils. Use high temp safe silicone tools.

[ua_guy]

All-Clad disappointed me after such a good run. We bought two of their non-stick pans specifically for eggs and other quick-cook items. Not cheap, like $180 for the bigger pan alone if I recall correctly. Well, it was some kind of triple-layer metal design that started to separate with sharp edges. Both of us cut ourselves on the stupid thing, only to find out All-Clad eventually recalled the pans for the very issue. "Recall" as in - just don't use it anymore, throw it away, and they would pro-rate based on the purchase date towards purchase of a new pan, essentially giving us nothing in return. The coating was also starting to fail - not the bottom of the pan, like you'd expect with all the spatula and spoon use. The side of the pan where we'd tap the spatula or spoon. One day, a bunch of the coating just flaked off, like wth....

[disneysteve]

All-Clad disappointed me after such a good run. We bought two of their non-stick pans specifically for eggs and other quick-cook items. Not cheap, like $180 for the bigger pan alone if I recall correctly. Well, it was some kind of triple-layer metal design that started to separate with sharp edges. Both of us cut ourselves on the stupid thing, only to find out All-Clad eventually recalled the pans for the very issue. "Recall" as in - just don't use it anymore, throw it away, and they would pro-rate based on the purchase date towards purchase of a new pan, essentially giving us nothing in return. The coating was also starting to fail - not the bottom of the pan, like you'd expect with all the spatula and spoon use. The side of the pan where we'd tap the spatula or spoon. One day, a bunch of the coating just flaked off, like wth....

Definitely sounds like a manufacturing flaw. Sorry to hear that from a top brand.

We haven’t bought cookware for a long time because we put out the money for top quality and it has paid off. We bought Calphalon probably 20 years ago and it still looks brand new. Should last us the rest of our lives. It was expensive but it beats replacing cheap stuff every few years.

[QuarterMillionMan]

1) adding lots of oil defeats the purpose of a non-stick skillet (I can use my copper skillet which sticks big-time but w/a 1/4 cup of oil and the egg won't stick but then I'd have place the cooked egg on paper towel in order to soak up the excess oil on both sides, no thanks)
2) ua_guy brought up a good point on expensive cookware, no thanks on that idea either
3) I find the cheapest made in China $7 non-stick works best but the chemicals must be so toxic
4) mydale's point is funny that the eggs & bacon will get me before the teflon, but I beg to differ. The non-stick lining is so toxic.

[disneysteve]

1) adding lots of oil defeats the purpose of a non-stick skillet

You should not need to add much oil to a quality non-stick pan. A teaspoon of olive oil or a spritz of cooking spray should do the job. If you need a paper towel to soak up excess oil you've put in far too much.

[QuarterMillionMan]

This is one of my better poached eggs. A good non-stick skillet is essential for poaching an egg or else the bottom of the egg will stick to the pan and ruin the yolk.

[riverwed070707]

Whose response said to use "lots of oil" or 1/4 of a cup? Seems like your mind is made up that there is no solution to your problem and it certainly can't be that you're creating the problem

Definition of super small amount=too small to measure, a drizzle, less than a fraction of a teaspoon. Give it a try

[kork13]

First, oil does alot more than simply lubricate the pan -- done properly, it's an essential part of the cooking process. Oil can get to a far hotter temperature than the water present in our foods. If you don't use oil as a barrier between the pan & your food, the surface of your food is basically just steaming at 212°F. So if you want your food to brown properly & get a good crusty/crunchy texture to it, you need to use oil to get the food surface up to temps closer to 350-400°F (or higher). Plus in most cases (especially meat), building that crust also makes it much easier to release from a pan's surface.

But as far as pan recommendations go, for straight non-stick, I prefer hard-anodized aluminum (and/or ceramic coatings) over Teflon, due to Teflon's inherent toxicity & degradation issues. Teflon (aka "PFTE") isn't designed to survive above 500°F, which will readily happen if you accidentally scorch/burn your food. And as mentioned, metal utensils are deadly to Teflon coatings. In either case, it'll flake off, and lose it's effectiveness. Teflon pans are inherently short-lived due to their durability problems.

I had a set of non-stick anodized pans for about 15 years, and they were great. I handed them off to my youngest brother a few years ago when he was getting established after college & pilot training, and they still have years of utility left in them. I replaced them with some "hybrid" pans from HexClad, which do use Teflon as well as a ceramic coating, but have steel ridges built into the cook surface to protect the non-stick coatings from damage & provide improved searing abilities (though could be better). Not perfect, but I've been happy with them. Personally I don't eat eggs, though my family does in abundance. DW rarely has a problem with the egg sticking (except scrambled -- almost no getting around that). Yes, you do need to use some oil, but for 1-2 eggs in a 6-8" pan, it's just a tsp or so -- enough to coat the pan.

[Jluke]

Vollrath.

[SavingBucks]

I purchased a brand called Carote on Amazon for black Friday. Ultra nonstick with only a little oil needed. Not designed for superhigh heat. I cook eggs regularly and it is truly nonstick (for me).

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I was looking at switching to induction cooking which i heard would make me switch pans from calphalon which I loved and used for 15+ years.