Hacker News Reader

Comment by syntaxing | Hacker News Reader

I think (unglazed) ceramic is your best bet. I use ceramic pans and glass pots. The corning glass pots last forever (probably my lifetime) but I have to replace my ceramic pans maybe every year or two. Seems worth the $50 for a peace of mind.

View on HN

Unglazed ceramics can leach arsenic depending on their composition, so if you are really paranoid your safest bet is new lab grade borosilicate glass.

That would be the original borosilicate Pyrex which is no longer made. Fortunately, I inherited a ton of it from my parents...

Original PYREX is still made in France: https://www.pyrex.eu/collections/glass-dishes (Also, https://icedteapitcher.myshopify.com/)

Stovetop CorningWare is still sold directly stateside: https://www.corningware.com/product/4-piece-cookware-set

Unfortunately the PYREX prices are ridiculous. It's just lab glass...

There is true (as per ISO standard) borosilicate glass available in Europe under various other marks (Simax, Boral,...). We use it widely but as it's softer than regular glass it's prone to scratches and subsequent catastrophical failure. Unlike lab reagents, food can contain sand grains and scratch the glass. Maybe that's the reason why Pyrex isn't borosilicate anymore.

This is the thing that perplexed me to a long time.

It turns out that pyrex isn't borosilicate in the states, but it is here in europe. I have a pyrex measuring jug that I've heat shocked loads of times and its still with me after ~18 years. However in the states I tried to use a pyrex just as I would at home, and the thing shattered.

The perils of licensing your name out I suspect

Screw it. All of this tech is too much. I'm going back to wood sticks on an open fire next to the cave I'm moving into.

ah, but the wood smoke is full of carcinogens, we're better off not eating!

You mean not cooking, raw diet is a thing these days.

Yes, we see what a raw diet can do, don't we precious?

Yes, we do. We wants it.

I chuckle imagining this comment thread found in 50+ years, when a better understanding would lead to many common foods, cooking methods and materials being outlawed for being extremely unhealthy, and someone doing a double take, saying "What??? They KNEW?".

Bruh just don't inhale the smoke.

Wouldn't have been that much of an issue for early humans anyway given their limited life expectancy.

Not so fast, join the long queue...

What kind of ceramic pan are you describing here? My assumption was ceramic coated cast iron, but you would hardly replace that yearly.

I know people who've bought cheap enameled cast iron, and theirs died after around 2 years of heavy use.

There's some teflon-like substance marketed as ceramic. I doubt it lasts more than a year, despite all the marketing claims saying it is indestructible.

I accidentally bought one on Amazon once, thinking it was a ceramic coated cast iron pan. Back it went.

I guess it's not false advertising if hundreds of fly by night companies all co-opt the name of the same superior technology.

I use green pans. While they still “work”, the nonstick properties diminish which isn’t the end of the world, but gets annoying for things like eggs.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com