Cooking pan notes

✎ This article/section is a stub — some half-sorted notes, not necessarily checked, not necessarily correct. Feel free to ignore, or tell me about it.

Materials

tl;dr: aluminium is your easy go-to. If you like to spend time cooking, there can be nicer choices.

Aluminium

Upsides:

• light
• cheap
• good heat conductivity

Moderates;

• not always easy to keep clean
• wear easily, through use and through harsh cleaning.
• often relatively thin, which isn't ideal for heat spread

Downsides:

• acidic foods will shorten its lifespan, and may react a little (read: put some aluminium compound in your food)
• health issue: see previous point

Aluminium with coating

• properties of most coating
• avoids the acidic-food issue

Steel

Upsides

• cheapish
• deals well with high temperatures
• deals with acidic food better than e.g. aluminium
• ...so probably lasts longer than e.g. aluminium

Downsides

• conductivity not so good, so does not heat quite as evenly

...though with a layered bottom it's good enough for most purposes

• nickel or chrome (verify) bleed into your food a tiny amount

Not enough to be a general issue, except when you have strong allergies

Not an issue for surgical steel pans(verify), but most aren't

Steel with ceramic coating

• Removes possible allergy issue

Carbon steel

Generally similar to cast iron and such

Upsides

• heats more evenly than basic steel
• stronger / less brittle than cast iron
• smaller pores than cast iron, should last longer
• light (useful for camping gear)

Downsides:

• needs care (oil every now and then, avoid soap when unnecessary)
• pricier than cast iron

Purpose dependent:

• Does not retain heat so well

Cast iron

Upsides

• Deals well with higher temperatures
• moderate heat capacity (more if thicker)

Downsides

• won't last long if not treated well (porous, so rusts easily, and harder to clean)
• acidic foods can shorten its lifespan, though this is often overstated
• acidic foods can release more iron

but for most people this is not harmful

it might even act as a useful iron supplement

and the taste difference is typically negligible

Cast iron with ceramic coating

Upsides

• removes issue with acidic foods
• removes issue with porous nature
• non-stick alternative to teflon

Downsides:

• susceptible to scratches
• will wear with (over)heating

Iron

Does not conduct heat very well. Useful for some specific tasks

Downsides:

• won't last long if not treated well

Copper

These usually have an inside coating of stainless steel, tin, or ceramic.

There are also pans of just copper, but they have a bunch of footnotes that means they won't be convenient for home use.

Tin, while nicely non-stick, has some footnotes to use, so stainless and ceramic are the most useful for non-chefs.

(note there are also e.g. stainless pans with a copper bottom, for heat spreading, which is basically the same, but without the 'the whole pan looks nice' angle)

Upsides

• conducts well, so
  • doesn't need preheating (actually best avoided)
  • lessens hotspots
  • lets you cook on somewhat lower heat, so sometimes a little more energy efficient
• people like the patina and/or shined look

Downsides

• for non-coated copper: acidic or salty food will corrode it. Even for coated, it will corrode any copper it still finds
• won't last long if not treated well (e.g. cleaned abrasively. Also, copper is a little too reactive(verify) for dishwasher cleaning, and don't use things like chlorine)
• a tin coating can't stand very high temperatures (e.g. preheating without food/oil), or scratching
• costly

Glass

Typically pyrex or similar.

Arguably not so useful beyond ovens and microwaves.

Upsides

• deals with high temperatures without issue
• does not react

Downsides

• does not deal with thermal shock
• low conductivity
• breaks easily

Terracotta

Ceramic treated for use in cooking.

High heat capacity and bad conductivity, which makes it useful for specific tasks, mostly slow stewing.

Upsides

• convenient for specific tasks

Downsides

• not general-purpose
• won't last long if not treated well (e.g. thermal shock, or not soaking it every now and then)

Silicone

Upsides:

• has anti-stick properties
• deals with high-ish temperatures

Downsides:

• does not deal with fire, so only useful with indirect heat (ovens, microwaves)

May need to be cleaned before first use

what is (property) good for?

Conductivity

More conductivity can

Heat capacity

More heat capacity tends to mean

• a thick layer
• it is easier to spread the heat (avoids local burning on high-ish heat)
• it is easier to have fairly constant temperature
• also making it easier to work with lower temperatures (e.g. stewing)

Less heat capacity tends to mean

• a thin layer
• it is easy to deliver a lot of heat quickly, e.g. useful in wokking

Coatings

Upsides

• anti-stick
• ...so needs less oil

Downsides:

• care. For all coating, avoid:
  • scratching with metal
  • harsh cleaning

• anti-stick properties also often mean less contact, so it's harder to intentionally singe e.g. potatoes or meat

Teflon

PTFE (for Polytetrafluoroethylene), better known as Teflon

Upsides:

• well-treated teflon is very non-stick

Downsides:

• Health issues: PFOA (tl;dr: no big worry, but also sort of unnecessary if you're happy enough with steel or ceramic)

Other notes

Caring for / cleaning iron and steel

✎ This article/section is a stub — some half-sorted notes, not necessarily checked, not necessarily correct. Feel free to ignore, or tell me about it.