Study finds link between 'forever chemicals' in cookware and liver cancer

Re:Study finds link between 'forever chemicals' in cookware ... by nonrandomstring on Friday August 12, 2022 @04:56PM (#32443795)

Learning to "proof" steel is something worth spending time on.

I was taught by a Chinese room-mate at college who showed me how to prepare a wok.

- 1. Heat the thing up as HIGH as it will go, till parts of the base glow red if you can. Gas is better than electric heat.

- 2. splash a little vegetable oil in and swill it around to cover all the surface. It may ignite, ignore the short lived flames, but brush it around with a paper towel so that the carbonised film covers the surface with a black layer.

- 3. Add some fine salt. Use the paper towel to rub it around until a shiny and slightly bluish and rainbow colour carbon later coats the surface.

This will be as good as any teflon for a few cookings.

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Re:Study finds link between 'forever chemicals' in cookware ... by Robotbeat on Friday August 12, 2022 @05:13PM (#32443978)

Heating edible oils to very high heats does tend to produce harmful chemicals as well.

EDIT: For example: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4029104/

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Re:Study finds link between 'forever chemicals' in cookware ... by buildbot on Friday August 12, 2022 @05:51PM (#32444355)

Right, but unlike fluorinated compounds those toxins can be broken down by your body and flushed out (I could be wrong?). For example, alcohol is pretty toxic to us.

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Re:Study finds link between 'forever chemicals' in cookware ... by lr4444lr on Friday August 12, 2022 @08:01PM (#32445420)

Aren't they polymerized into the metal, though? I don't think they come off that easily, barring steel wool or something extremely abrasive.

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Re:Study finds link between 'forever chemicals' in cookware ... by sa1 on Friday August 12, 2022 @09:52PM (#32446178)

I don't think chemicals in Teflon come off any easier, but they still do.

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Re:Study finds link between 'forever chemicals' in cookware ... by nfhshy68 on Friday August 12, 2022 @10:02PM (#32446255)

Reckons main issue is that it degassed the chemicals into the air. With most range hoods just recirculating the air you're basically getting a face full of it every time you cook.

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Re:Study finds link between 'forever chemicals' in cookware ... by sa1 on Friday August 12, 2022 @10:37PM (#32446431)

Isn't it the same issue with oils and high heat during cooking and seasoning?

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Re:Study finds link between 'forever chemicals' in cookware ... by lr4444lr on Saturday August 13, 2022 @10:08AM (#32450016)

Doesn't Teflon degrade due to the high Temps? I really don't know that much about it, but it's just the opposite with cast iron seasoning: heat hardens.

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Re:Study finds link between 'forever chemicals' in cookware ... by sa1 on Saturday August 13, 2022 @12:38PM (#32451465)

We were talking about scrubbing. For heating, lots of carcinogenic compounds are released during the process of seasoning, and I don't see why the same wouldn't continue to happen at high heats afterwards(happy to be corrected). Hardening and releasing dangerous compounds aren't mutually exclusive.

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Re:Study finds link between 'forever chemicals' in cookware ... by fencepost on Tuesday August 16, 2022 @02:25AM (#32479764)

I believe the seasoning instructions for Matfer carbon steel pans involve cooking a mixture of potato peels and salt with a bit of oil until crispy (while moving constantly), which seems to do a pretty nice job of starting the seasoning on those.

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