My son bought me two of the Green Pans brand frying pans. I do love them. They will brown food well which can be difficult in a regular non stick. I have grown kids using them also so you know they are not babied, it's been about a year and they look brand new. The Dutch oven size pot is fabulous too. If I had to complain it would be that the frying pans are so slippery you have to be careful the food doesn't slide out when you're trying to flip something! Lol

I don't know what to think about these. If you look at reviews on Amazon people seem to think they're either the greatest thing since sliced bread or totally useless.

After trying various supposedly better non-stick coatings over the years, I've finally come to expect that non-stick pans only last 2-3 years and buy the cheapest ones possible. My nicer pans are all stainless steel.

I agree that the Green Pans are not bad at all. I used them daily for a couple months (while on a long-term work assignment). At home, I use only cast iron. I preferred the Green Pans to Teflon, but did not like them as well as cast iron.

The Green Pans (which have a silicon-based finish, IIRC) do clean up quite easily, although after a while they got brown stains along the outer edge which I could not scrub off. From reading the manufacturer's website, I inferred that the outer part of the pan got overheated, which ruined the non-stick properties. (It still worked fine, it was just stained.) (The outer part of the pan got overheated because the cooktop had large-diameter sealed burners for the high-heat burners.)

Like mamma_dukes, I think they brown food better than teflon, but I don't think they brown it as well as cast iron.

After ditching teflon due to health reasons, we very much liked our Scanpan 12-inch round griddle (has ceramic in it). But we haven't been able to use it for 6 months since using a single-burner induction as our temporary cooktop during a remodel. Instead, we've used well-seasoned cast iron and won't go back to nonstick pans. Cheap, easy to clean, will last forever, no toxic coatings. Did I mention cheap?

Thank you everyone! I think I will try buying the 12 inch ceramic surface Green Pans to try it. I agree nothing is better than the cast iron but with arthritis in my hands & wrists it is too heavy for me now. So I will just keep my grandmother's (over 150 years old?) to look at: huge footed, covered cast iron pot with handle, heavy old waffle iron, bread pans, muffin tin, etc.! I see a lot of cast iron now being sold in the thrift stores at outrageous prices but wonder how one can tell the age & if there is differences in quality of the cast iron? An elderly aunt once told me that when she was growing up in Arkansas her relatives would save the rust that formed on the cast iron & give to the 'blue babies'... wonder if they were iron deficient?! Interesting history of that old cast iron!

Good point, vieja! Cast iron is indeed heavy. Fascinating history! I think cast iron in second hand stores is more expensive than buying new Lodge these days. Crazy.

What about carbon steel pans? We love our deBuyer pans - once seasoned, they are amazingly nonstick even with fired eggs. We seasoned them with potato peels and oil as directed on the deBuyer video.

LOVE them and no chemicals.

Here is a link that might be useful: de Buyer Mineral

I also really like the de buyer pans. I recently got the crepe skillet and am looking at getting another. Incidentally does anyone know the difference between their Mineral B and blue steel pans?

Lalitha

(Old cast iron is indeed better than new--it is machined much smoother and it's thinner. It weighs less and builds up a seasoning faster. Some cast iron aficionados will sand the new stuff smooth for a similar effect but it's still heavy. Additionally, much of the new stuff--not most Lodge though--is made in China and some people have concerns about the metal content. I don't know if it's a valid concern--it's not like my 1920s dutch oven was a product of heavy regulation.

There are web sites where you can get help identifying older pieces. Most are marked and you can get a pretty good idea of when and where it was made.)

Getting away from my initial ?, but... I also have a set of my Mom's old- I think they are called 'club aluminum'- heavy embossed pots with covers & pans: I have heard reports about it being bad to cook with aluminum! Gosh, guess those old cast iron would still be the safest to use!

Michelle and Lalitha: Funny you mention carbon steel today. Carbon steel pans (or at least one to try) are on my "to get" list, and I almost went to the restaurant supply store on my way to Home Depot today. I am especially revved up about that possibility now that my new range has been delivered. (Not yet in service, sadly.) Could be the thing that supercedes cast iron for me! (Although that is not really much of a change -- just a few percent of C.) Wouldn't mind lighter pans with the same cast iron attributes!

vieja, I believe that aluminum is safe to cook with. There was an initial scare about 20+ years ago when aluminum was found in plaques in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. But, that observation has been disputed, and, more importantly, there is no reason to think dietary aluminum plays any role anyway. (Only 0.3% of aluminum that you eat finds its way past your GI tract.) From WebMD: On the other hand, various studies have found that groups of people exposed to high levels of aluminum do not have an increased risk. Moreover, aluminum in cooking utensils does not get into food, and the aluminum that does occur naturally in some foods, such as potatoes, is not absorbed well by the body.

vieja ... the aluminium scare was mostly fostered by salesmen for stainless steel pan companies.

They saw aluminum deposits in autopsy slides of brains of dementia patients ... it was QUICKLY shown to be because of the staining technique and the aluminum content of the water in the lab that did the slides (later slides made from the same brain samples in different labs did not have the aluminum deposits), but like all good urban legends, it refuses to die off.

Good to hear 'lazygardens' re: aluminum as it is in so many things we use ... like deodorant/antiperspirant, etc. That ? 'club aluminum' set of cookware my Mom had was so heavy, a dull finish & had a design imbeded in it. I may still have the covered pot of her's yet somewhere...!

'fori': my very old castiron pieces are heavy (you mentioned the older were lighter weight) but a lot of the weight may be all the 'crud' built up on them over the years of use by previous generations!

We went ahead & ordered a 12 inch ceramic fry pan (Green Pans)so am anxious to see how I like it. Even if it lasts just 2-3 years that would be what another more $$ teflon fry pan would last anyway!

Thanks so much for all of your help !

now curious, I dug out the old vintage 'Silver Seal' club aluminum pots of my Mother's. Had no idea they were so old, made in the USA in the 30's but no longer made; 'Guardian Service' I believe replaced them. I will make sure I don't donate them to thrift stores... they are 'keepers'... but am now curious about the history of this cookware! I shall leave this on this posting but will also post one to find out the history, etc. of this old 'Silver Seal' aluminum ware!