My cheap non-stick cookware from Farberware
Every household has a running kitchen battle, and ours is non-stick cookware. My wife considers it an abomination. It’s a cheat, plus surely the coating will come off and kill you. I like it on occasion. A non-stick skillet is great for eggs (especially omelets) and a quick sauté of chopped vegetables. I keep my cheap non-stick cookware discreetly tucked away for these needs.
Recently the discussion has elevated for several reasons. First, somebody put a deep scratch in my skillet and it was time to replace. Second, the folks at Misen launched a Kickstarter for their new non-stick line and I became one of the 12,000 people to pledge $40 for a pan I won’t receive till March 2019. Third, this old thread showed up on my Serious Eats feed, in which the gang test non-stick cookware options and come to an interesting conclusion.
I got a Misen chef’s knife a while back and like it a lot. It is well balanced and holds its edge, two early promises fulfilled. It cuts a little differently than my other knives so I occasionally find myself chopping a fingernail instead of the food product, but I’m learning. I have a lot of respect for the research that went into their non-stick line which you can read about here. They don’t promise their cheap non-stick cookware will last forever, but they say it will far outlast cheap non-stick brands currently on the market.
8 inch Farberware non-stick skillet has a lip; 10 inch has a thicker base (thus superior quality)
But… what exactly is “cheap”? Misen’s benchmark is $30-40, which is why something stirred within me when Serious Eats told me I can get an 8 inch professional grade aluminum omelet pan for around $16 on Amazon. Oddly, a 10 inch pan was even cheaper so I ordered them both. When they arrived it was like going to your high school reunion and running into that old friend who is better than you remember instead of a sloppy drunk. This is the same pan I used in chef school, [redacted] years ago! Same heft, same heavy aluminum body. (Induction cooks, look elsewhere.) I’m sure the handle has been upgraded but the pan itself is timeless.
I immediately took to cooking and the surface is so slippery it’s hard to keep the food in the pan. (Exaggerating!) Since I have two of them I’ve been using for everything that will fit. I am careful never to use a tool other than wood or rubber, and the pans have yet to see soap and hopefully never will; I heat a little clear water to simmer after using, same technique as a wok or cast iron pan, and wipe clean while still hot with a paper towel.
I recommend you get one or several of these Farberware pans and put them to work. If you absent mindedly grab a fork and gouge the surface as I suspect my teen cook did, you aren’t out very much money and they’re easy to recycle and replace. That’s what cheap non-stick cookware is all about. Will the Misen pan be better? We’ll have to wait a few months to find out, and there are lots of omelets to make between now and then.
