I don't think I have actual Teflon, unless they just changed the name.

Question on cookware, now that I have a new kitchen to make in my own image. I have a non-stick skillet. According to some sources, I should just slit my wrists now, since I'm apparently killing myself by using it. I know part of the problem with Teflon was that people would leave them on hot burners for ages unattended, which I know better than to do. Even though I have a dishwasher now, I don't want to spend eons scrubbing out my skillet. Do I need to save myself and get a new skillet?

It's fine to use a teflon pan in general, but I would suggest you discard it when there has been a scratch on the bottom of the pan deep enough that you can see the metal base of the pan, or it holds even a hint of rust. Teflon generally isn't the issue -- it wouldn't be FDA compliant if it was -- but you're only meant to eat food from the top of the teflon coating, where the barrier forms to keep the non-sticking action working.

You're not going to get ill from a few flecks of teflon in your food, but as more will flake off the longer you use the pan -- particularly as you're introducing heat every time as well -- the more you will inadvertently consume.

Stainless steel pans are a great option, particularly if you're using olive or coconut oil as a cooking base. For frying or searing, you can use an oil mixed with some butter, but generally I don't use butter on its own with stainless steel as I find it burns off too quickly at high heat. WalMart carries a 10" stainless steel sauté pan with a lid for ten bucks, and that pan will cover almost everything you might need to cook.

Well, I've had the pan for about three years, I'll look around for a smallish stainless steel skillet.

Cast iron is always a safe choice, for home defense as well as cooking.

Cast iron is fussy. I don't do fussy cookware. And I prefer swords for home defense, it's hard to stab with a cast iron skillet--though the skillet-and-carving knife combination is classic.

According to some sources, I should just slit my wrists now, since I'm apparently killing myself by using it.

Those sources are not reliable. Granted, I am a mouthpiece of Big Cookware and we make a lot of nonstick everything, but the stuff that used to be harmful in nonstick coatings is not used anymore by anyone manufacturing anything that is sold in the US. It does not matter what brand name the nonstick coating is. The only reason to worry about scratches in the nonstick coating is because stuff you are cooking will be more likely to stick there.

Let me know if you want me to hook you up with a stainless steel pan, our outlet sale is starting soon. A small skillet ought to be fit into a flat rate USPS box, I think/

Cast iron really isn't as fussy as we have been led to believe. It is heavy, though.

Ha!

I'm southern & I grew up a short drive from a Lodge factory outlet, so cast iron is my primary cookware. I have probably a dozen pieces of difference sizes and uses. It definitely is a devotion to caring for it properly, but nothing compares to cast iron for cooking meat and poultry, and eggs, too. In the last few years I've acquired some pretty lovely pieces -- at least one that dates from the early twentieth century, and another that's probably from the forties. They have just as much utility now as they did then. I pity the next familial generation I am going to earnestly foist these off to, for they will have to care for them as a nod to my legacy.

Let me know if you want me to hook you up with a stainless steel pan, our outlet sale is starting soon. A small skillet ought to be fit into a flat rate USPS box, I think/

Tempting, but my skillet is doing fine for now. Though if the prices are good . . .

My wife has a couple of enameled cast iron pans that take some of the fussiness out of cooking with it. I have no idea what the pros and cons are, though.