I bought a aeternum non-stick pan- am I wasting my money?

[Sistina]

It cost maybe 35 bucks from Fred Meijers. I'm on a very tight budget right now. I checked Amazon reviews and it got pretty bad reviews. What do you think? I really want to be able to sauté onions with the McDougall diet. Kinda concerned about the expense of a good quality pan.

[scooterpie]

• With Aeternum ceramic coating--ALWAYS use a little oil or butter when cooking foods.

From the Bialetti website: http://www.bialetti.com/wp-content/uplo ... re-use.pdf

[stevelbrown]

water or veggie broth work fine.

[Grammy Ginger]

I just use stainless steel with a bit of water or broth. No problems at all.

[talkingmountain]

A well seasoned cast iron pan works well too, for just about everything except pancakes.

[scooterpie]

I use stainless steel pans now--I always end up using metal with non-stick teflon. And I like an old cast-iron pan when I don't need a lid--it's square. I overheated a teflon pan a few too many times and it started deteriorating and since then, I just am turned off by teflon. However, I dug out a hardly-used electric griddle (non-stick) and it's great for frozen hashbrowns. So far:-)

[Sistina]

I use stainless steel pans now--I always end up using metal with non-stick teflon. And I like an old cast-iron pan when I don't need a lid--it's square. I overheated a teflon pan a few too many times and it started deteriorating and since then, I just am turned off by teflon. However, I dug out a hardly-used electric griddle (non-stick) and it's great for frozen hashbrowns. So far:-)

Would that be like the George Foreman grill? I always see them in thrift stores and thought about trying one.

[bunsofaluminum]

I don't own any kind of non-stick anything. I have cast iron and AllClad, which are aluminum core w/a stainless steel lining. I am able to saute onions, mushrooms, garlic, etc. with no problem.

My cast iron is pretty much my hashbrown pan. I don't use it for much else, because it's big. Used to use it for homemade spaghetti sauce because the tomato leaches some of the iron out of the pan, increasing the iron content...hm, not a bad idea even now. Maybe next time I make ratatouille.

anyways, sorry for the tangent there. For myself, I have thought about it once in awhile, buying a non-stick, but I can't think why I would need it. I'm on a tight budget too, and don't want to spend that kind of money on anything non-frivoulous so I've never bit the bullet and got a nonstick...but I don't need it.

I don't think you need it, either. It's very doable, browning onions in just a titch of water (or dry as I do it) In fact, don't we have a recipe around here somewhere, caramelized onion? It takes a little bit of time, but it works.

But I don't even follow the method Mary McD recommends...I just put my stainless skillet on med high, throw the cut up onions and whatever else in there, cover, and let it cook. I check it every five minutes or so, and in less than 20 min, I have what I want: nicely browned onion with dark edges. It does stick, but deglazing works for that, too. Or adding ingredients with a lot of moisture, such as mushrooms.

[scooterpie]

Would that be like the George Foreman grill? I always see them in thrift stores and thought about trying one.

Sistina, it's a small, electric Presto brand griddle (like for pancakes). I think walmart carries that one plus a large one. I had tried them in my regular stainless pan and first the pan was a little small, so I wanted to see how it would do on the griddle. Either way was good, but there's obviously less clean-up with the non-stick griddle.

I've never used a George Foreman grill, but I bet if you did a search on "hash browns" or "hashbrowns" and "foreman" someone's experience with it would come up.

[healthyvegan]

Bed Bath and Beyond lets you return ANYTHING no matter how used it is, so its the perfect place to find your perfect nonstick cookware. I had to return a few pans before finally understanding the care instructions, such as not cleaning until COOL, etc.