Foodsday Tuesday: Cooking with Teflon

According to Wikipedia (and isn't everything these days?), Teflon was first used by the DuPont company in 1946 and is most commonly used in households today as a coating on nonstick cookware. You can see the Wikipedia page for safety precautions when cooking with Teflon, but we thought we'd give you a refresher course on cleaning and maintaining your pots and pans.

First of all, to make sure that your Teflon coating stays intact (part of the way you can avoid "Teflon Flu"), you should make sure you only use plastic or wood utensils on your pots and pans. Metal utensils can scrape the Teflon coating off, which can not only prove harmful to you but also lessen the nonstick quality of your nonstick cookware.

When cleaning your nonstick cookware, you should avoid putting it in the dishwasher. The beauty of nonstick cookware is that it's nonstick, so washing it by hand shouldn't be too difficult. Just make sure that you wash it with a sponge or a plastic-bristle dish brush (we're big fans of the Dawn Power Dish Brush). Steel wool will strip Teflon completely and should never be used on your nonstick cookware. If you've got the kind of dirty dishes that won't come clean right away, despite the Teflon, steel wool might be tempting, but you should try soaking the pots and pans in hot, soapy water, for a few minutes so that the food residue softens and can be scrubbed off.

Teflon makes life easier, as a rule, but it does require more care than cookware that isn't coated with it. If you're not ready to commit to the cooking and cleaning regimen required with nonstick cookware, Phillyist would suggest copper cookware. It's more expensive than stainless steel, but it cleans up a little more easily. But definitely don't invest in cast iron cookware if Teflon maintenance is too much for you -- caring for it requires even more work than Teflon!

Image via Mitech Trading.