As you all know pots and pans for gas stove are predominantly made of non-stick materials, stainless steel, and ceramic. Learn the pros and cons of using these materials before buying one. After COVID, health consciousness increased worldwide.
If you are looking for ways to cook healthy food, you should probably start by choosing the correct cookware. In this article, I list the differences between stainless steel, non-stick and ceramic. I also explain the pros and cons of these materials. Apart from these, I will be briefing about the pros and cons of using Non stick pan without Teflon.
Differences
The following table lists the key differences of stainless steel, non-stick, and ceramic materials:
| FEATURES | CERAMIC | NONSTICK | STAINLESSSTEEL |
| Affordability | ☺☺ | ☺ | ☺☺☺ |
| Durability | ☺☺ | ☺ | ☺☺☺ |
| Safety | No risks | Moderate | No risks |
| Cleaning | ☺☺ | ☺☺ | ☹ |
| Cooking | Good heat | Poor heat | Good heat |
| Quality | ☺☺☺ | ☺☺☺ | ☺☺☺ |
| Health benefits | ☺☺☺ | ☺ | ☺☺ |
| Cost | ☺☺ | ☺☺☺ | ☺ |
| Heat retention | ☺☺☺ | ☺ | ☺☺ |
| Heat conduction | ☺ | ☺☺☺ | ☺☺ |
| Even Cooking | ☺☺ | ☺ | ☺☺☺ |
| Seasoning | Not required | Not required | Optional |
| Use of oil | Very less | Not required | Less |
| Corrosion resistant | ☺☺☺ | ☺☺ | ☺ |
| Brittle | ☹ | ☺☺☺ | ☺☺☺ |
| Induction stove usage | × | × | ✔ |
Before you learn the differences in detail, you should know certain things about the materials and their pros and cons. Let us now begin with the basics.
What is a non-stick?
A non-stick is a surface that does not stick to food particles while cooking. Cookware categorized as non-stick comes with a coating called poly tetra fluoro ethylene (PTFE). PTFE coatings are commercially known as TEFLON.
Physicians believe that Teflon has certain health risks. According to them, continuous consumption of Teflon may decrease vaccine response in children; bring changes in liver enzymes, increase blood cholesterol levels, and many more.
Considering the health risks, researchers discovered a non stick pan without Teflon. Coatings that replaced Teflon were silica, anodized aluminum, and enameled cast iron. Cookware made of these materials is also nonstick but does not pose health risks. Still they use small amounts of synthetic polymers along with these natural materials.
Pros and cons of Non stick cookware
- The non-stick is the cheapest of all the three materials. You can easily buy a non-stick cookware set with $100.
- Non sticks pans are not very durable. They start to peel away exposing the food particles to the toxic chemicals. For this reason, you should change your non-stick cookware once in two to three years.
- The non-stick materials are very easy to clean.
- Heat conduction of non stick materials are higher than the stainless steel and ceramic. Non stick pans heat very quickly and therefore are easy to cook. However, the heat retention of non stick materials are very low.
What is stainless steel?
The stainless steel is an alloy. It is made of iron, chromium, nickel and other metals. Pots and pans made of stainless steel are resistant to corrosion and rusting.
Grade of stainless steel cookware
The ratio between nickel and chromium determines the grade of stainless steel. Grades shall be listed as 18/10 or 18/8. First number in the grade indicates the percentage of chromium. Second number is the percentage of nickel.
Seasoning
One of the major drawback of stainless steel cookware is the requirement of more oil to prevent food particles from sticking to the cookware. However, you can avoid this with seasoning. What is seasoning? It is the process of creating a non-stick like coating to the pans.
How to season a stainless steel pan?
- Heat the pan
- Add enough oil
- Allow the oil to fume
- Turn off the burner
- After the pan reaches room temperature, pour off the oil
- Clean the pan with a dry cloth without water
The stainless steel pan now has a natural non-stick coating. However, the coating wears away easily. You need to season the pan often to maintain the non-stick coating.
Pros and cons of Stainless steel
- The Stainless steel is non-toxic, durable, and is ideal for long periodic cooking like sautéing, boiling or baking.
- Unlike non-stick, stainless steel retains heat. It cooks food evenly. For this reason, it is ideal for small batch cooking.
- Stainless steel is easy to clean and is dishwasher safe
- Only disadvantage of stainless steel is that when you cook for longer duration, it may leach metallic acids into the food.
- Low grade stainless steel are prone to corrosion and are less durable.
What is ceramic?
Ceramic cookware is made of clay. It is corrosion resistant and heat resistant. Ceramic cookware is made using mixtures of clay and other earthen elements. After obtaining desired shapes using wet clay, the cookware is fired in kilns at high temperatures.
Pros and Cons of ceramic
The ceramic cookware is easy to clean only if it comes with a nonstick coating. Usually, silicone is coated on ceramic cookware to prevent food particles sticking to the surface. Ceramic cookware releases silicone oil when heated. The oil forms a natural coating to the ceramic cookware. However, the coating degrades after few days. The durability of the silicone coating is less than the Teflon coatings on non-stick pans.
Ceramic cookware is the safest of all the three materials. However, sol gel coated ceramic cookware is not safe to use. Heat distribution in ceramic cookware is bad.
Stainless steel vs Non-stick vs ceramic
Like I said earlier, the pots and pans for gas stove are mainly made of three materials. They are non-stick, stainless steel and ceramic. Now that we have discussed the pros and cons of the three materials, let us now learn their differences.
Affordability
The non-stick cookware is the most affordable of all the three. The non-stick uses synthetic polymers and therefore, is economical to design and build.
There is a wide misconception that ceramic cookware is cheaper than the other two. It is not true. Though ceramic is made of clay and clay is easily available, ceramic cookware is not cheap. High temperature kilns used to fire the wet clay and silicone coatings make the ceramic cookware highly expensive.
Stainless steel is expensive than the other two for the building materials used. Like discussed earlier, stainless steel is an alloy of iron, nickel and chromium. Materials used in steel making increases its cost.
Durability
Stainless steel is highly durable of all the three materials. Ceramic is the second most durable material. Non-stick pans are less durable as they break over very high flames. Breakings in non stick pan without Teflon is minimal.
Safety
Stainless steel is the safest of all the three materials. Teflon coatings used in non-stick pans carry health risks. Ceramics with sol gel coatings are also not safe to use. Sol gel is an inorganic compound created using metal alkaline oxides.
While ingested, Teflon causes chronic kidney diseases, low birth weight, testicular cancers, thyroid disorders, infertility, liver diseases, etc. Apart from health risks, the Teflon carries environmental risks as well. Does this mean should I not use Teflon coated pans? No. You can use Teflon coated pans. They become risky only when the coating wears away. So limit using Teflon coated pans to one or two years. After that, buy a new one!
Cleaning
Nonstick pans and Ceramic pans are very easy to clean. However, stainless steel pans are not so easy to clean. Cleaning them becomes tougher especially after frying. Iron in the stainless steel becomes viscous and starts attracting food particles when heated to high temperature. This makes the stainless steel cookware sticky and difficult to clean. To avoid the burden of cleaning after cooking, one has to use more oil or season the pan frequently. Increased consumption of oil is not advisable for heart patients and diet practitioners.
Cooking
The ceramic and stainless steel provides good heat to the food as compared to non-stick. The comparison of heat provision shall be done based on three factors namely heat retention, heat conduction and even cooking.
Non-stick pans are the quickest to heat as compared to the other two. However, their heat retention is poor. When it comes to even cooking, stainless steel wins. Food cooked in stainless steel is therefore, tastier.
Health Benefits
The ceramic cookware without any coatings is the safest of all the three. Some ceramic cookware comes with silicone coatings or sol gel coatings. Silicones form oil like substance when heated. The oil oozing out of the silicone is called silicone oil and it acts as a natural coating to the ceramic cookware. Silicone is made of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and silicon and is completely safe to humans. Ingesting silicones does not cause any health risks. On the other hand, the sol gels carry potential health risks and are not safe to ingest. Therefore, ceramic cookware without coatings is the safest option.
Also, the non-stick pan without Teflon coatings is also safe to use. If you are health conscious, make sure your non stick pan coatings are made of aluminum, silica or cast iron. The stainless steel is completely safe to use. Manufacturers add chromium and nickel to the stainless steel alloy to make it corrosion resistant. These additives are not good for health. Therefore, while buying a stainless steel pan, ensure, they are added in less quantity. You can find out the amount of the additives by enquiring the grade of the steel.
Cost
The pots and pans for gas stove should be economical. For many, they are once in a life time investment. Of all the three, stainless steel is the most expensive material. Cost of ceramic pans increases with its design features and type of clay used. For instance, ceramic pans made of white clay and China clay are highly expensive. This is because these clay soils are available in very few parts of the world. The white clay is available only in the Amazon forests of Brazil. China clay is available only near the South China Sea coast. Also, the design of ceramic cookware and the artwork increases its costs.
Seasoning
Seasoning is the process of giving a natural non-stick coating to the cookware. Ceramic cookware and non-sticks do not require seasoning. Rather, they cannot be seasoned. On the other hand, the stainless steel cookware can be seasoned. Seasoning your stainless steel cookware is not mandatory. It is optional. For those who do not like using synthetic materials for cooking stainless steel is a good option.
Use of oil
The oil consumption in non-stick pans is the minimal. In fact, you can cook food without using oil in non-stick pans. However, ceramic cookware requires a very small amount of oil and stainless steel requires considerably more amount of oil. You cannot use stainless steel pans for frying without oil. Food particles sticks to stainless steel pan easily and turns black within few seconds.
Corrosion resistant
The ceramic pans are corrosion resistant. As the ceramic pans are made of clay, they do not form rust over time. On the other hand, stainless steel is prone to rust formation. Low grade steel where the ratio of additives used in alloy like chromium and nickel are less rusts easily. Rust formation in ceramic cookware is very rare. However, rust formation does occur in ceramic cookware. When do ceramic cookware form rusts? Say you have used your ceramic cookware for more than two years. Teflon coatings start to wear away. Metallic surfaces beneath the Teflon coatings exposed to air. As the metals come in contact with the atmospheric oxygen, they form rust. So if you replace your non-stick plans frequently, they do not form rusts.
Brittle
The ceramic cookware and the most brittle of all the three materials and breaks easily. Brittleness in stainless steel is the least. In fact, it may melt but never break!
Induction stove usage
While we buy pots and pans for gas stove it is essential to check if they are compatible with induction stoves as well. The stainless steel cookware can be used on induction stove. Neither ceramic nor non-stick cookware shall be used on induction stove. However, some of them come with stainless steel base. Such cookware can be used in induction stoves.
I have explained the differences among the ceramic, non-stick and stainless steel cookware in detail. I have also explained the pros and cons of using these materials and also the pros and cons of using non stick pan without Teflon. Hope my guide is helpful in buying pots and pans for gas stove! Happy cooking!