u/Eriu_Cookware

What do we like to cook with?

Why Ash?

Ash is a hardwood that can withstand heavy daily use in the kitchen without easily cracking or breaking.

Unlike many other hardwoods, ash is naturally springy. This "bend" (why it's used for hurly making) is ideal for sliding under delicate foods like eggs or fish without breaking them.

Wood is also a poor conductor of heat, so it stays cool to the touch even when left in a hot pan.

Ash is obviously a natural, non-toxic material that won't leach chemicals or melt like plastic.

I melt a little on the outside for added crunch.

Or do you have your own regimen? Let’s Settle it.

I’ve seen a few people asking whether cast iron works well on induction, so I did a quick test myself.

Short answer: yes, it works perfectly.

Cast iron works on induction because induction cooktops heat pans using a magnetic field rather than direct heat. The stove generates a changing magnetic field, and because cast iron is ferromagnetic (rich in iron), it interacts strongly with that field. This creates tiny electrical currents inside the pan, and as those currents meet resistance in the metal, they produce heat directly within the cast iron itself. Materials like aluminum or copper don’t work unless they have a magnetic layer, since they aren’t affected by the magnetic field.

Curious what cooking surface you’re using? Gas, electric, induction, bbq or pizza oven?

Easy brownie recipe for some stunning brownies.

Ingredients

•	180g Irish butter

•	200g milk chocolate

•	3 eggs

•	240g caster sugar

•	1 tbsp Irish smoked sea salt 

•	1 tbsp Irish whiskey(optional)

•	110g plain flour

•	100g white chocolate chips

Method

1.	Heat oven to 180°C and line a cast iron pan with butter

2.	Gently melt the butter and chocolate together.

3.	In another bowl, stir the eggs, sugar,and whiskey (if using) by hand.

4.	Mix the melted chocolate into the egg mixture.

5.	Fold in the flour and white chocolate chips.

6.	Pour into the tin and bake for about 45 minutes.

7.	sprinkle over your salt and let cool completely in the pan (chilling them in the fridge helps make them extra fudgy before slicing).

Im sure the community hee has alot to say on this.

So I just went down a bit of a rabbit hole on these trendy “non-toxic” pans, the ones from Always Pan, Caraway, and GreenPan.

These brands blew up partly because people wanted to move away from old-school nonstick (like Teflon). That whole shift makes sense especially after lawsuits against DuPont over chemicals like PFOA, which were linked to health issues and environmental damage. Even recently, there have been massive settlements over “forever chemicals” pollution.

So naturally, ceramic-coated pans were marketed as the safe, modern alternative. No PFOA, no PTFE, nicer design, celebrity backing from people like Selena Gomez and Oprah Winfrey.

But here’s where it seems to get a bit sketchy.

The term “ceramic” is doing a LOT of heavy lifting. Traditional ceramic cookware (like ancient clay pots) is basically solid, heat-fired material that can handle crazy high temperatures. These new pans? Not really that. They’re more like a thin coating made using something called a sol-gel process, sprayed onto metal (usually aluminum) and baked at much lower temperatures.

So instead of true ceramic, it’s more like a “ceramicish” coating.

And companies don’t fully disclose what’s actually in that coating.

That’s where concerns start popping up. Some independent testing and research suggests these coatings can include things like titanium dioxide nanoparticles (a potential carcinogen in some forms), siloxanes (sometimes used as PFAS replacements), and even trace metals like lead or mercury in certain cases.

There’s also the issue of heat and wear. These pans can start degrading at relatively normal cooking temps 260°C, and I’ve seen people report the nonstick coating wearing out pretty fast. Once that coating breaks down, whatever’s in it can potentially leak into food or be released into the air similar in concept to how overheated PTFE reacts.

Also, there’s no long-term research on what happens when all these different compounds interact or accumulate.

Regulators are starting to notice, Washington state asking companies to actually reveal what chemicals they’re using, because right now it’s mostly hidden behind “proprietary formulas.”

At the same time, the demand isn’t slowing down at all. The nonstick cookware market is booming, and ceramic-coated pans are expected to grow even more as countries crack down on PFAS. So this whole thing might just be the next wave of “safer” products, whether they actually are or not.