Cooking: High Quality Cookware

High quality stainless steel cookware is a great choice for save cooking. Many kinds of cookware react with the foods, either changing the taste of the food or even releasing harmful materials into the food that can cause imbalances or diseases. Many non-stick coatings like teflon are save – but once they get scratched or overheated they can start to leak chemicals in the food that are according to some scientific studies dangerous and possibly carcinogenic.

Stainless steel cookware is very save. Stainless steel is a mix of different metals: iron, chromium and nickel. Iron, as you are probably aware of is not a dangerous metal for the human body – one of the healthy aspects of spinach for example is that it has a lot of iron.
Chromium also is healthy for humans – between 50 to 200 (microgram) mg per day are recommended. Studies have shown that when you cook one meal in a stainless steel pan or pot it releases about 45 mg of chromium into the food – so that’s even less than what’s recommended daily, a very save amount of chromium. That means even if you eat four meals a day that are all cooked in stainless steel pots and pans you would still be in the save range, since 4 times 45 mg equals 180 mg (less than the daily 200 mg that are totally fine).

About nickel – nickel really isn’t something that you want to put in your body. Fortunately when you cook with stainless steel cookware there is very little nickel leaking into the food – so little that scientists and medical professionals consider it absolutely save. The only people to whom the nickel might pose a threat are people who have nickel allergies. If you have a nickel allergy I suppose you already talked to your doctor about that. Since stainless steel cookware is used in so many public places (restaurants etc.) I suppose that it still is normally not that big of a threat, but again, check with your doctor.

To some this might all sound a little weird and they might be surprised that when they cook part of the cookware also gets into the food. But this is really normal, it’s the world we live in. You drink from a can and some tiny amounts of the can material will get into your drink. You drink from a bottle and some tiny amounts of the plastic get into your drink. When you cook there is heat involved which enforces reactions between different materials. This is nothing bad – remember that we human beings are designed to live in this world and to handle these kinds of things.
When you buy high quality cookware you can be pretty sure that it is save to use – cause all these big brandname manufacturers have a reputation and they don’t want to risk lawsuits. Of course if you buy cheap noname cookware that’s a different case – which is one of the reasons why I always choose high quality cookware.

I hope you found this article insightful – if you have questions or comments, just write something by clicking on comment – I’d be glad to hear from you.

 

 Save Cookware – Is Stainless Steel Cookware Save? [3:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Stainless steel is really the champion when it comes to durability in high quality cookware. A good stainless steel pot can last you a lifetime.
There are still some things you want to do to maintain your stainless steel cookware perfectly spotless and shiny – because even thought it is very (more…)

 

 How To Handle Stainless Steel Cookware [4:28m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Cast iron is a great material for cookware. If you handle it properly it will last you a lifetime (and longer!). The only exception when it’s time to get rid of your cast iron cookware is when it has cracks, but it’s difficult for cast iron to crack, so I think that won’t happen to you (I’ll tell you later what pretty much the one thing is that can make your cast iron cookware crack and how to avoid it).

First step: Seasoning! Now this is what many people dread. The seasoning (also known as curing). Yes, it is a bit of work, but then you’ll have a great piece of cookware for life. I think it’s less work to take good care of your cookware than having to buy a new piece of cookware every couple of years.
Basically what you do is you put oil, grease or shortening in your pan, griddle or dutch oven and spread it all over the inner surface. Then you bake it so that the oil can get inside the tiny pores that are in the cast iron material. Another way to season your cast iron cookware is to put it on the stove, heat it up and then put oil in it while it’s still hot and on the heating stove. Spread the oil all over the surface and let it cool down and lightly wipe of excess oil with a paper towel.

Once it’s properly seasoned you should not boil water in it - because the boiling water might wash off some of the oil particles that are in the surface and thus damage the seasoning.

If the seasoning ever gets damaged, what you have to do is to clean the whole thing thoroughly, wipe it dry and then re-season it. If you don’t do that the cast iron cookware might begin to rust, and you surely don’t want that to happen.

Another big nono is to pour cold water in a hot skilled - the temperature difference might be too much for the iron and might cause it to crack.

Preheat before you cook. The best way to tell if your cast iron cookware is properly preheated is to drop some water inside - if it sizzles and then vaporizes it’s perfect. Otherwise it’s either not hot enough (and the water won’t sizzle and vaporize but simply bubble) or it’s too hot - in which case the water would vaporize right away.

Oh, yes, and one more thing: use potholders! Otherwise you might burn your hands badly.

How To Clean Cast Iron Cookware
It’s best to clean it right away with warm water and soap, just scrape away a bit on it and then wipe it dry and put it on a heated burner so that it’s really dry. You should never soak it in water or leave soapy water in it as this might wear down the seasoning.

How To Store Cast Iron Cookware
It’s always best to make sure it is stored in a dry place. I’d also suggest you take the lid of, cause if air has a high humidity moisture can build up - and moisture means rust. If you want to be totally sure or know you are not going to use your cast iron cookware for a long time just put some paper towels inside or even better some of these salt-packages that absorb moisture.

What To Do When Cast Iron Cookware Rusts?
Usually you don’t need to throw it away - you just have to fix it, which means to scour the rusty areas with steel wool until all traces of rust are gone. Then Wash it throughly, let it dry and reseason it.

If you use too much oil to season your cast iron cookware then it might gum up when heated. What you do then is to scrape of some of the seasoning and then reseason it more carefully.

If your food gets a metallic taste, or turns dark, it either means that your pan has not been well seasoned, or you are leaving food in it well after it is cooked. So, do not store food (particularly acidic food) in cast iron cookware, as the acid in the food will break down the seasoning.

 

 Cast Iron Cookware Maintenance [4:41m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download