Non-Toxic Cookware: What the Label Can and Cannot Mean

Lodge says its cast iron is made with just iron and vegetable oil, applied at the foundry to create the seasoning, and that it has been made without PFAS since the beginning. The company also says it uses third-party labs to verify its cookware is free of PFAS and of dangerous levels of lead and cadmium. The 12 inch skillet weighs about 8 pounds and has two pour spouts and a helper handle.

Seasoning is polymerized oil, not a manufactured coating, and it renews itself as you cook. The as-cast surface is slightly pebbly, so eggs stick until a few weeks of cooking have built it up. After that it releases well and sears better than any coated pan.

Skip it for long simmers of tomato or wine, which strip young seasoning, and skip it if an 8 pound pan is hard to lift one-handed.

The catch. Heavy, and the rough surface needs use before it releases eggs cleanly.

Clad stainless has no coating to wear, flake or question. The cooking surface is 18/10 stainless steel, and the aluminum core that spreads heat is sealed between steel layers, so it never touches food. Tramontina's tri-ply 12 inch pan is made in Brazil, NSF certified, oven safe to 500 degrees Fahrenheit, and works on induction.

America's Test Kitchen has made it their budget pick among stainless skillets for years, noting it resists warping. The flat cooking surface is on the small side for a 12 inch pan.

Stainless is not entirely inert. A 2013 study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry measured nickel and chromium moving into tomato sauce cooked for hours in stainless pots, most from new pans, falling over the first several uses. Cooks with a nickel allergy sometimes keep long acidic simmers for enamel for that reason.

The catch. Food sticks until you learn to preheat and use fat; stainless rewards technique.

Carbon steel is iron with a little carbon, rolled thin rather than cast, so it heats faster and weighs less than cast iron. Like cast iron it is seasoned with oil rather than coated, and a well-seasoned pan releases eggs nearly as well as nonstick. Lodge makes this one in the United States from 12 gauge steel with riveted handles and includes a silicone handle holder.

America's Test Kitchen found the factory seasoning on Lodge's carbon steel wore through during early cooking, so plan to season it again yourself before trusting it with eggs.

Skip it if you want a pan that needs no upkeep. Carbon steel has to be dried and lightly oiled after washing, or it rusts.

The catch. The factory seasoning is thin; expect to build your own before it is truly slick.

Ceramic nonstick is a sol-gel coating, largely silica, made without PTFE. GreenPan says its coating is free of PFAS, PFOA, lead and cadmium. When Consumer Reports tested two ceramic pans from other brands for 96 PFAS, it found none. Valencia Pro is hard-anodized aluminum with an induction base, oven and broiler safe to 600 degrees Fahrenheit.

America's Test Kitchen found most ceramic pans lost their release quickly, and Valencia Pro was one of the very few that stayed slick through its tests. It is their favorite ceramic skillet.

Buy it for eggs and fish, keep the heat at medium, and wash it by hand. Every nonstick coating is a consumable, and this one is no exception.

The catch. Ceramic coatings lose their release faster than PTFE, even the best of them.

Enamel is glass fused to the iron at high temperature. It needs no seasoning, does not react with acidic food, and gives the heat retention of cast iron with none of the upkeep. Le Creuset has cast in northern France since 1925, and the 5.5 quart Signature round is its reference pot, with a light sand-colored interior that shows browning clearly.

The pot is oven safe to 500 degrees Fahrenheit and works on every cooktop. America's Test Kitchen, which named it the winner in its size, weighed it at 11 pounds 3.5 ounces with the lid. Lodge's Essential Enamel 6 quart does the same job for about a fifth of the price, if the budget is the deciding factor.

Treat old or unbranded enamelware with more caution than new pieces from established makers; nobody can tell you what went into a vintage pot's enamel, or what it has been through.

The catch. Enamel can chip if the pot is dropped or heated empty, and a chipped interior should be retired.