The recent demise of our Teflon frying pan was greeted as an opportunity to find a plasticless alternative. I have always been a fan of cast iron cookware. but I haven’t been able to find any pans locally. I wasn’t able to find them when I was in Tunisia either. Tunisia has local aluminum fabrication so aluminum cookware was abundant and affordable. I left my aluminum cookware in Tunisia for others to enjoy.

Earlier this week we picked up a blue steel frying pan from a catering supply store. It costs about the same as a similar sized Teflon pan with the big difference being that it could last forever. You have to season a steel pan with repeated treatments of oil and heat. Here is a link to some Amazon reviews of a similar product. People really love these pans.

Teflon is a plastic. Some studies have raised concerns that using these pans can add dangerous toxins to your food. From what I have read do far, this doesn’t seem to be a huge problem. The biggest environmental drawback with Teflon is that toxins are released into the environment during it’s production. Steel fabrication has an environmental cost as well, but I have to assume that buying and using one steel frying pan for a lifetime is greener than buying a new Teflon pan every year or two.

Choosing the most durable products for preparing food at home is a reasonably green activity. Preparing food at home from unpackaged local ingredients is a very green activity.

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