The downside to aluminum is that it is a soft metal and so it scratches and dents easily. The bottom of an aluminum pan can eventually bow – especially if it is frequently used over a high heat.
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There are ways to avoid this. The cheaper option is to look for cookware that has an inner core of aluminum and an outer coating of stainless steel.
A slightly more expensive answer to the problem is to choose anodized aluminum cookware.
What Is Anodized Aluminum?
Aluminum has a naturally occurring layer of aluminum oxide. The anodizing process thickens this layer. The thickening gives the cookware a harder, darker, non-porous surface which won't react to acids. It also means that it can heat up faster and reach higher temperatures.
Once it's been anodized, aluminum will be more resistant to chipping, cracking or peeling. However, it can still be scratched. If the surface is damaged, the anodized coating will be lost in that damaged area.
Sheet or Cast?
The most common forms of aluminum are anodized, sheet or cast.
Sheet Aluminum is the most common. The metal is rolled or stamped into shape and is most often used for baking sheets and cake pans – although stockpots, steamers, pasta pots and even cheaply priced skillets can be made from it.
As it is so soft, it is usually mixed with magnesium, copper or bronze to make it stronger and more durable.
Cast Aluminum is made by pouring heated molten aluminum into a mold. During this process, microscopic air pockets form in the metal. This means that the resulting cookware items will hold their heat for longer than sheet cookware. It also makes them quick to heat up and they only need a low heat source.
However, they are not so great at distributing the heat evenly and are also quite brittle. If they are dropped, they will probably crack. Cast aluminum cookware is porous and needs to be seasoned.
How Do I Season It?
- Wash the cookware with hot soapy water.
- Dry it and then coat it thoroughly with vegetable oil. The easiest way is to pour the oil onto a paper towel and work it well into all the surfaces.
- Put the well-coated cookware into a 250 degree oven and leave it there for 2 hours.
- Never use scouring pads or detergent on cast ware. Simply wipe it out using a damp cloth.
- If food starts to stick to the cookware, just season it again.
How Do I Look After It?
- Repeated washing in a dishwasher will strip off any seasoning, can cause discoloration and is not advised. Remove the staining by boiling something acidic like tomatoes or apple peelings and then re-season.
- Don't leave it to soak in soapy water
- Don't use steel-wool pads to clean it
- You can use non-abrasive cleaners or a paste made with baking soda and water. se either of these with a gentle, synthetic scourer and your sheet or cast aluminum will shine!
Is It Safe?
Many people are scared to use aluminum cookware as they believe it may cause Alzheimer's disease.
Back in the 1970's, some researchers in Canada reported the finding that people who had died with Alzheimer's had unusually high levels of aluminum in their brains. It sparked controversy – was aluminum the cause of Alzheimer's, or the result of it? Many people were alarmed by this and threw away their aluminum cookware.
More recent studies would seem to indicate that the increased levels of aluminum were due to the Alzheimer's itself. Brains which have already suffered damage from Alzheimer's will allow unusually high levels of aluminum in.
This is not difficult as aluminum is everywhere. The most common elements on Earth (in order of prevalence) are oxygen, silicon, and aluminum. It's in air, water, soil and consequently in the plants and animals that we eat.
So can using aluminum cookware harm me?
Current research believes that it is safe to use. To put it into perspective, many common medications contain aluminum.
- One antacid tablet may contain more than 50 milligrams of aluminum.
- One aspirin may contain between 10 and 20 milligrams of it.
- The World Health Organization says that an adult can safely ingest more than 50 milligrams of aluminum each day. People in the western world naturally consume about 10 milligrams each day and only 2 of those milligrams come from aluminum cookware.
Article provided courtesy of Only Cookware - a premier resource for cookware, stainless steel cookware and cast iron cookware sets.
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I haven't encountered much cast aluminium cookware in the shops over here, maybe I am just not going to the right ones. I see plenty of cast iron cookware, though, and noticed that the process of caring for it is the same.
Um... silicone is not an element. Perhaps you meant silicon?
The most common elements in the observable universe are hydrogen and helium, which comprise 97.9% of the matter by weight. Everything else totals only 2%!
Element......Parts per million by weight
Hydrogen ......739,000
Helium...........240,000
Oxygen...........10,700
Carbon..............4,600
Neon.................1,340
Iron..................1,090
Nitrogen...............950
Silicon..................650
Magnesium...........580
Sulfur...................440
All Others.............650
Um... silicone is not an element. Perhaps you meant silicon?
Yep, they must have meant silicon. I've made the correction.
Another good article. My experience with cast aluminum in the past has been with dutch ovens and sauce pans. While they don't have the glitz of copper or the flash of shiny stainless steel (aluminum sandwich in the middle), they are awfully durable and are very evenly heated. The stamped skillets and other "pots and pans" are functional (once you figure out the hot spots), but for saute and sauces they don't cut it. How many times have you heard the stories of people who have tried a hollandaise or sauteeing onions and the mess it made afterwards using those stamped beauties?
The black anodized (Calphalon ?) are very nice and are worth buying a piece at a time, just like any other good and functional cookware. I've only used the sauce pans and they are every bit as good as my best copper. A lot cheaper to boot. The only caveat with the this type is that unless it says who made it. those knock offs are worthless.
Continued success to you and yours
Steel, cast iron, or copper is the way to go if you can afford it.
Additionally, I'd like to get more information on seasoning pans. What happens when you have the oil on the pan in the oven for 2+ hours and why does it take that long? Once you heat the oil in the pan, do you wipe the oil off and put the pan away until the next use? I assume this isn't a preparation step that has to take place before you cook every time. What types of cooking necessitate a seasoned pan? I imagine seasoning the pan won't have much of an impact on poaching/boiling, steaming, and braising, but I don't understand the process completely.
As covered in the article, there are problems with acidic foods and soft surfaces that makes you consume it in your body. But it was also a common knowledge that the Soviet army used on purpose aluminium dishes etc because the added benefit besides weight was the fact it suppressed your sexuality. So stay clear of scratching it and never eat out of an aluminium dish as you undoubtedly will scratch it then!
Do you know of a refereed journal where it says that so we don't start another unsubstantiated urban legend?
Also, I've never heard of seasoning cast aluminum. As far as I know, it isn't necessary like for cast iron.
I usually go to the restaurant supply store and pick up a skillet that lasts about 2 years before it starts sticking. Then just replace it.
I killed a couple when I shifted to gas from electric.
guess I got carried away with the the ole' 'preheat the pan' bit.
out gassing from overheated PTFE can be fatal to (pet / house) birds.
I'm sure somewhere there is someone who will insist any food cooked in non-stick pan is instantly fatal to any consuming human.
I have also established (patent pending) that the root cause of death is life, so I take the "everything is going to kill you" routine with a bit of salt. which of course will also kill you.
meanwhile, like you, I've given up on finding/buying some ultimate non-stick fry pan. I buy a $7 grocery store pan, when it becomes sufficiently scratched / dinged up that non-stick is a memory, I chuck it and buy another $7 pan.....
http://pamperedchef.com/our_products/catalog/overview.jsp?categoryCode=FH
or
"buy stoneware"?
spelling counts, even amongst engineers.
for info the link you specified shows bake ware.
bake ware is not intended for use as a frying pan
I love to cook with luminum pans and I have been using Soy Lecithin to season them, just wipe a small amount on the heated pans with a paper towel and keep heating them on the stove for 10 minutes. Try it and let me know.
Regards from Venezuela,
Graciela
They are not necessarily inexpensive – a 14-inch Wearever sauté pan with lid (sold separately) can cost over $100. Restaurant supply houses also are great places to find double-walled, heat cored, Vollrath stainless steel stock pots for those acidic foods, but that’s another story.
I’ve cured smooth Wearever fry pans with great results using Crisco and following the directions given to me by a local chef. Here’s how it’s done: If you don’t have at least a 750 cfm exhaust fan, temporarily disconnect your smoke detector. Fill the fry pan with solid Crisco. Heat until oil turns slightly brown. Turn off heat until pan cools. Repeat the process until the oil smokes. Turn off heat and let the pan cool until the Crisco just begins to solidify. Pour the Crisco into a container. Rinse the fry pan in warm water and dry with a paper towel.
Once cured, Wearever fry pans cook like they were teflon – providing that sufficient heat, butter and/or oil are applied. I’ve tried curing Wearever sauté and sauce pans using the same method with differing results. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn’t. I think it has something to do with the radial machining on the bottom of the sauce and sauté pans.
Basically the best pans are the "restaurant quality" pans. First, they are CHEAP. A good cookie sheet costs $7. A good fry pan cost about $30, and they last and don't warp (meant for high heat).
As for sticking: nonstick is good for beginners. It's no good for "real" cooking, at least not for me. First, I need high heat to carmelize foods. Once it is carmellized, it surely makes a mess: all this brown gunk on the bottom! But then, you add a douse of water or wine, which makes this amazing SHOOSH! of steam (very impressive). It's called "deglazing" but the main point is: 1) It cleans your pan and 2) It makes this amazingly delicious sauce.
You can't cook on high heat OR do deglazing in nonstick. You can do both in either aluminum or steel. Steel works better, in my book, because it puts up with more abuse and stays "flatter". However, my steel pan does have an aluminum core, so it doesn't have hot spots. Steel also outlives nonstick amazingly. I had 2 sets of nonstick before I switched to steel, but none of the steel pans have died, whereas the nonstick needs to be replaced every few years, usually after someone else had them on high heat for too long.
I do have one pan that has some sort of "glass steel" coating that is listed as "nonstick" but isn't teflon of any type. It's a different kind of steel. Very expensive, and amazingly effective, and rarely sold.
As for non-stick pans being less than ideal for high-heat cooking or deglazing, that's no longer true. There's at least one manufacturer - Scanpan - who makes a line of non-stick pans that use a ceramic-titanium coating over aluminum that can take a great deal of heat, doesn't off-gas PTFEs, and will withstand the abuse of metal utensils. They're also oven and dishwasher safe. On top of all that, they still guarantee them for life.
Of course, they don't give the little rascals away; you'll pay a pretty penny for them. But, if they last as long as they say they will and they're willing to replace them forever, they're a bargain. We have a set here and while we've only been using them for a couple months, They're everything Scanpan says they are, and clean up almost as easily as rinsing. I can't recommend them highly enough.
I personally don't find it a safe cooking medium; so I don't use it. Basically 2 items are not used in my kitchen; aluminum pans, and the microwave.. I take that back.. I use the microwave to nuke my sponges. 2 minutes on high. But never food. Both aluminum pots and pans, and microwaves do things to food that are bad for you, IMHO.
BUT.. if you want really really sound scientific proof as most are engineers here; I'll give you the argument from the food quality standpoint.
Cast iron heats evenly, browns beautifully, and is cheap to own and will outlast you. Aluminum is soft, and has a funky taste.
I cannot think of a situation in which aluminum is superior to either cast iron or stainless steel with a copper core. Stainless definitely has a more neutral taste; if you don't believe me, throw a few tomatoes into a recipe and see how strange things taste in aluminum pans. Any meats, I prefer cast iron. Anything that is acidic sauce in nature, I prefer stainless.
There is almost no point to arguing that aluminum pans are bad for you, because those who believe it will always believe it, those who don't, will die early.. :lol: And I agree with Superchef, slap down a heavy piece of meat and the aluminum pan gets cold.
So you shouldn't use an aluminum pan because it is simply an inferior cooking surface..
http://search.mercola.com/Results.aspx?q=aluminum%20cookware&k=aluminum%20cookware
no science, all hyperbole
no science, all hyperbole
Agreed.
..
Natalie C.
I would not recommend using aluminum - the acid of the apple will darken the pot and over that length of time, you could pick up some off flavor.
I think there's some fundamental misunderstanding of how microwave ovens work and possible confusion with electromagnetic radiation and ionizing radiation (they type that creates comic book superheroes and causes mutations, radiation sickness, and all sorts of other problems).
One question... I lined the bottom of the oven with aluminum foil, is it consider harmful ?
I use different criteria for choosing pots and pans in my own kitchen than restaurants do. I still like to eat out sometimes, but I worry much more about excessive salt and trans fats in my dinners than I do about cookware composition.
But I did read one thing I want to comment on. Microwaves heat your food by heating up the water molecules and other compounds such as fat in said food(popcorn can be popped in the microwave for this reason and if you know why popcorn pops then there is the proof). Nothing more, nothing less. The only way you would be exposed to the radiation would be if you have a broken microwave---like you have broken the shield in the door that protects you(some waves escape but if you're that paranoid, you shouldn't be watching TV or sitting in front of a computer screen) or you're foolish enough to mess with the microwave unit and have made it a danger to use. Again, all it does is throw waves through your food and the food molecules do a little dance which causes them to heat up---which is why certain foods heat up better than others in a microwave. Concerning my food in a microwave or just a microwave oven in general, I'd be far more concerned about eating foods I prepare at home and eating nutritional foods versus 99.9% of the junk found at my local grocery---full of preservatives, man-made chemicals that are indigestible, fillers, etc.