February 07th, 2023

I guess this is the tale of two pans.  That sounds silly.  But essentially, that is the situation here.

The pan on the bottom is kind of an orangey colour.   That is the old pan.  The one of top is a black and silver pan.  That would be the new pan.  Both of them are touted as being "non-stick" which is a good thing. 

The orangey one was called a "copper" pan when we bought it which was on a whim.  I don't recall if it was Big Lots or Walmart or Target but it certainly wasn't anywhere high end.   It was nearly seven years ago so I can be forgiven if I don't remember all of the salient details, I think.

I do know that we were not out specifically looking for a new pan but, at the time, we were hearing a lot about the relative awesomeness of "copper" cookware and the fact that this one was nonstick definitely was an allure.  It must have been very reasonably priced.  And clearly we were in need of a nonstick pan because we bought it.   And immediately it went into regular use.

Tim is the eggman.  That is to say that when eggs are going to be fried or scrambled or made into omelets, he's the guys.  When he makes eggs they always come out fluffy and perfect and delicious.  I just stand back, admire, happily eat the eggs and eventually clean the pan.  As I am not the Omelet Master, I cannot speak as to whether or not this copper pan is or is not the Bees Knees when it comes the actual cooking of the eggs but as the dish washer I can tell you that my favourite part about the old copper pan was how easy it was to clean.  Zippity do dah and done.  Love it.

And then one day I noticed that it was getting harder and harder to clean this non-stick pan.  The eggs still tasted great but the cleaning up of it was definitely less than delightful.  The Non-stick Pan had become a Mostly Stick pan.  And that is not good.  There were no scratches, no chips, the surface at least appeared to be just as pristine as ever, but the cleaning up was definitely different in a bad way.

Apparently I crabbed about it just long enough because recently a package arrived on the doorstep that, once opened, revealed a new nonstick pan!  The black and silver one.  The sides are higher, the handle is longer and it has a silicone grip.  The best part of course being the non-stick-ness of it all.  Hurrah.  Peace once again settles upon the sink of our household.

Nonstick cookware! What an absolutely genius idea!  It was created back in 1954 by French engineer, Marc Grigoire at his wife's suggestion.  Brilliant!  The product didn't hit US shelves until in the mid 1960's but I suspect that my mother was the first person in line to buy it.  My mother loved anything that made any household chore easier.  Frozen TV Dinners  - Yes!  Instant mashed potatoes - You betcha!  Toaster Ovens - of course!  And non-stick pans - Absolutely!  My mother, bless her, had many many talents and was a wonderful person but she was not remotely interested in food in any capacity.  Not shopping for it, cooking it, serving it or eating it.  So it was done with as little muss or fuss possible.    Consequently, I honestly do not recall a time in my childhood when there weren't non-stick pans in our kitchen.

And if you have nonstick pans you also have the proper tool right?  Because otherwise it will scratch the coating and you will have teflon in your food!  That is not a good thing at all!  Well ti be perfectly truthful, sometimes proper tools were used in our house and sometimes they were not.  I've probably ingested enough teflon in my life that germs should just slide right out of my body.   I suppose  it was not a big  deal because if the pan got too scratched up, she would throw it out and buy a new one.  They weren't particularly expensive.

At some point, some smarty britches found a way to make non-stick pans also less likely to be scratched up.  Another brilliant move.  I think we've all seen the late night commercials with the nonstick cookware that can be scratched, hammered, pummeled and blown up without any harm coming to the pan.  Our new pan is not one of those.  The instructions very specifically say to use silicone, nylon, bamboo or wood tools.  Ok we can do that.  They also say not to use any aerosol cooking sprays .  Both Fine and Dandy.  It even specifies to never use it over high heat!  Okay we can do that too.  It is, apparently, dishwasher safe but honestly, since nothing sticks to it, clean up is so easy that I'm not going to take up room in the dishwasher with it. 

It's maiden voyage was this past weekend.  The eggs came out perfectly and I barely had to expend a single calories worth of energy cleaning it so it's all good.  The old nonstick pan is dead.  Long live the new non-stick pan!